Blog Tour and Giveaway: No Boundaries: 25 Women Explorers and Scientists Shae Adventures, Inspiration, and Advice by Gabby Salazar and Clare Fieseler

Welcome to the No Boundaries Blog Tour!

In No Boundaries, twenty-five inspiring women from around the world -- many of whom are National Geographic Explorers -- share their adventures, failures, successes, sage advice and lessons learned, straight from the field.  This week, get to know five of the amazing women featured in No Boundaries and be inspired by their work and the challenges they overcame to forge new paths in science and exploration!

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Meet Mallory Dimmitt

Mallory Dimmitt is an expedition leader. Her goal is to protect and restore Florida’s wildlife habitats, and to connect them to one another so that animals have an uninterrupted area to roam. Recognizing that the first step to saving these habitats is to open people’s eyes to these amazing wild lands, she and her team from the Florida Wildlife Corridor organization complete both long and short expeditions and share the photos and video footage with the public. Follow her on Instagram for her latest adventures @mallorydimmitt.

Q: How do you sleep in a swamp? 
Mallory: “We mostly sleep in hammocks, with mesh screens for mosquito control. When we started our third trip, the weather was chilly, and we were a little more exposed in a ham- mock than we would have been in a tent, so my back got cold. But then by the end of the trip it was hot, and when you’re hot and sticky, sleeping in a hammock can be uncomfortably snug! I try to lie still and focus on listening to all the night noises I can distinguish until I fall asleep.“ 

Mallory’s Must-Haves:
Fun! Mallory and her team like to play along the way—they toss Frisbees between canoes and sometimes get out in the swamp to splash around and throw a football. Together they biked the final 25 miles (40 km) to the Green Swamp, Florida’s second largest wetland. When they got there, they jumped into the dark waters for a celebratory swim. 
 

 

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Meet 25 female explorers and scientists in these inspirational and poignant stories of exploration, courage, and girl power.

Along the way, they share lessons learned and words of wisdom sure to inspire the next generation of scientists, adventurers, and world-changers.

Track a volcanologist as she braves the elements atop an active volcano. Travel alongside a mountaineer as she battles stereotypes―and frostbite―to conquer the famed Seven Summits. Join a conservationist on her passionate fight to save lions. Dig with a paleontologist to uncover massive dinosaur fossils, bit by breathtaking bit. These heartfelt stories give readers an insider’s look at the amazing work female explorers at National Geographic―and beyond―are doing in the field to solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

Rather than detailing the lives of well-known women, this anthology celebrates lesser-known changemakers and outstanding women of diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and fields of study who are just beginning to make a name for themselves. Each profile is based on first-person interviews and comes paired with useful tips and relatable advice for budding explorers and scientists. Stunning photography and fascinating general interest information about the animals, places, and practices add drama and context.

No Boundaries sends a positive message to every girl who has ever dreamed or dared to go a little further. And although these explorers’ endeavors are quite adventurous, the lessons they share can inspire all girls, as well as boys, whatever their goals, skills, and interests.

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram

CLARE FIESELER is a National Geographic explorer, photojournalist, and conservation biologist. She has conducted field research on coral reefs and island ecology across the Caribbean and wider Atlantic Ocean. She also studies urban wildlife in her home city of Washington, D.C. As a journalist, Fieseler has traveled the globe, reporting on emerging environmental problems for the Washington Post, NPR, and National Geographic, among other outlets. She was awarded the 2019 Mass Media Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Fieseler is most proud of the time she rappelled down a rock cliff with a broken foot to photograph the world’s most endangered fern. 

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram

GABBY SALAZAR is a National Geographic explorer, a nature and conservation photographer, and a social scientist. As a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Photography and an associate fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, she has worked on environmental photography projects across the globe, spending months at a time living in tropical rainforests and on tropical islands. Salazar has an MSc in Conservation Science from Imperial College London and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Florida’s School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Science, where she studies environmental marketing. She is committed to environmental education and uses photography to get kids outdoors and to connect them with nature. 
 

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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• One (1) winner will receive a hardcover of No Boundaries!
• US/Can only
• Ends 4/10 at 11:59pm ET
• Check out the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

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Blog Tour Schedule:
March 28th - Teen Librarian Toolbox
March 29th - YA Book Nerd
March 30th - Always in the Middle
March 31st - Bookhounds
April 1st - Randomly Reading

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Leatherdale

Just as they did with Dreaming in Indian: Contemporary Native American Voices, Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale have once again created an anthology of Native American voices from Canada and the United States. This time, however, it is devoted to the voices of indigenous women only. For Charleyboy, this work is "a love letter to all young indigenous women trying to find their way, but also to help dispel those stereotypes so we can collectively move forward to a brighter future for all."

#NotYourPrincess is divided into four sections, all of which contain a collection of  poems, prose, art, and photographs by women and teens detailing some of the issues that have impacted their past, present and future as Native women.

In the first section, "The Ties That Bind," is about the ties to the past, recognizing a heritage and identity marred by the trauma and humiliations of the residence schools where Native children were taught to feel shame about who they are, and forced to assimilate to white society, or the shame felt at having everything taken by the government and wearing blankets in an attempt to protect themselves and to hide their shame. But, as Lianne Charlie (Tagé Cho Hudän) shows in her picture montage, #LittleSalmonWoman, Native women are their past but they are their present, too and it's in the present that things can change, accented by the last two entries of this section, In Her Words by Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe/Ojibwe) and Jen VanStrander  (Western Band of Cherokee).

The next section, "It Could Have Been Me," looks at the way victimization of indigenous women has always been perpetuated on Native women and those who now refuse to accept being victims and fight back. Even as young Native women are disappearing, are hurt and abused, actress Imalyn Cardinal (Cree/Dene) states flatly "I Don't Want to Be Afraid." And in "The Things We Taught Our Daughters," Helen Knott (DaneZaa/Cree) tackles domestic and sexual abuse and the way keeping silent was taught from generation to generation, and that now, it is time to speak up, to not accept this kind of treatment. As if in answer to Knott's is a poem by Patty Stonefish (Lakota) called "It Could Have Been Me" that ends with the word "I will not believe I am weak-/ I know I am indomitable./ I have the privilege of another day." I think this poem really shows the strength and the determination of young Native women refusing to be the victim anymore.

The third section, "I Am Not Your Princess," considers cultural appropriation in We Are Not a Costume by Jessica Deer (Mohawk) and the kind of erasure that happens when an indigenous person doesn't fit peoples preconceived ideas of what a Native person should look like, as in A Conversation with a Massage Therapist by Francine Cunningham (Cree/Métis), or the refusal to be stereotyped in Stereotype This by Melanie Fey (Diné), and What's There to Take Back? by Tiffany Midge (Hunkpapa Lakota) in response to a call for submissions about recreating Tiger Lily into "a real image of Indigenous womanhood."

Section four, "Pathfinders," looks at Native women who are forging a different, more positive present and future for themselves and their children. In the poem When I Have a Daughter, Ntawnis Piapot (Piapoy Cree Nation), tells her future daughter "Don't wait. Don't whine. Don't pine./  Go for it. Work for it. Earn it" even if it means being shunned and ostracized, have the courage to stand up and fight for justice. Which is exactly what 13-year-old Annalee Rain Yellowhammer (Hunkapapa, Standing Rock Sioux) did when she signed on to try and stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. In Defender of Mother Earth, this young activist writes "We demand 'rezpect' for out water, our land, and our voices. This is followed by photographs of successful Native athletes in Living Their Dreams. There are other successful women contributing to this section, but they point out that being a pathfinder isn't without obstacles and difficulties that must be overcome simply because they are Indigenous women. But these women have forge a path that celebrates their identity as strong, independent Native women following their dreams, leading the way for future generations.

#NotYourPrincess is not necessarily an easy book to read, but certainly one that should be read by Native and non-Native people, male and female. Native girls and women reading it will find a celebration of the multiple identities of their womanhood, of "taking control of how they and their traditions are seen" and of shattering stereotypes. It is impossible not to be affected by these contributions of different women, but it is also not an easy book to review. There is so much in the short one and two page offerings of women expressing themselves so freely, that just talking about it doesn't do justice to what is contained between the covers. My advice: Read #NotYourPrincess

Pair this with Dreaming in Indian for a more well-rounded though far from complete look at what it means to be Native in today's world.

This book is recommended for readers age 14+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley

Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Selina Aiko and Sean Qualls

There was a time when all women and all African Americans had two things in common - neither group had rights and both groups had someone working hard to get them the rights they deserved according to the US Constitution.

In this meeting of suffragette Susan B. Anthony and former slave, abolitionist, and newspaper editor Frederick Douglass at her home in Rochester, NY,  author Dean Robbins imagines what the two pioneers in the fight for equal rights might have talked about when they sat down for afternoon tea one cold snowy winter's day.  The two were already friends with much in common - both defying society's expectations of them - she wears bloomers, he wears the clothes of a gentleman - and both just wanting the right to be free, and the right to vote.  As Robbins points out, some people agreed with their ideas, but some people didn't.

As the afternoon wears on, the two friends talk and the reader begins to understand what the lives of women and African Americans was like in the 19th century, as well as how and why Anthony and Douglass were trying to change things.  Both fighters had taught themselves how to give speeches, and throughout the book, there are steams of their own words from those speeches surrounding them.

At the end of the afternoon, the two friends promised to help each other "so one day all people could have rights."

"Let's Have Tea"statue in Susan B Anthony Square Park
Rochester NY

Robbins' text is simply, but to the point.  It shouldn't be forgotten that what went on that afternoon is imagined by him, but I am guessing it is pretty close to reality, given how passionate Anthony and Douglass were about their equal rights campaigns.

The emotional folk-art style illustrations are done with paint, colored pencils and collage in a palette of bright blues, reds and yellows.

Two Friends is a wonderful read aloud for young kids just beginning to learn American history.  Be sure to read the Author's Note to learn more about these two fighters for equal rights, and the Bibliography for sources to learn more about these true American heroes.

Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass would pair nicely with Nikki Grimes's picture book Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, in which she imagines a meeting of these two women for afternoon tea and conversation about their lives.  And yes, Frederick Douglass does come up in their talks.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+, but I think it is more appropriate for readers age 6+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Orchard Books, Scholastic

Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony Inspired by Historical Facts by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Michele Wood

Nikki Grimes has come up with a unique way to introduce young readers to two important women in American history in this historical fiction picture book for older readers.  She based her story in reality, at the 1904 Women's Suffrage Convention held in Rochester, NY (Grimes writes in the Author's Note that she could not discover when this convention was held and so she arbitrarily chose November).  Susan B Anthony was scheduled to speak and Harriet Tubman had planned on attending the convention, but ended up speaking about her life as a conductor on the Underground Railroad to the attendees after being introduced by Anthony.

Since there is no record of this meeting, Grimes has created an imagined meeting and conversation over tea at Anthony's home between the two women.  In alternating vignettes, each woman talks and reminisces about her life as am activists, recalling the dangers, the joys, the sorrows and the rewards.  Tubman tells Anthony about slavery and how she, once she freed herself, felt it was her duty to help others find freedom.

In between, Anthony tells Tubman about the family support she received that helped her learn to speak out for reform, especially for women, and about the dangers she also faced when speaking out or about unpopular topics.

Through their conversation, the reader begins to acquire a firm idea of what these two women accomplished, that will hopefully inspire young people to seek more in-depth information about them.  It is also interesting to hear them speaking about other well-known figures from their time, men like Frederick Douglas and John Brown.  There is just so much food for thought in this picture book, it will definitely take more than one reading to cull it all, but it is so worthwhile.

The acrylic and oil painted folk art style illustrations are so perfectly suited to the time period, done in a palette of rich colors from 19th century America and resembling a old handmade quilt.  Be sure to study each one closely.

The back matter shouldn't be ignored, either.  There are short biographies of each person mentioned in the book, additional notes, a useful biography and an Author's Note, all contributing additional information to the main part of the book.

I love that Grimes used an imaginary conversation to present so much information and to make the lives of these women stand out  in such an exciting way, making this a work that should not be missed.

And Grimes has also done an extensive Classroom Guide for teachers and homeschooling, which can be found HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL