Girls on the Rise

September 30, 2024
“Who are we? We are girls on the rise,” begins Gorman (Something, Someday) in validating lines that ring with tonal resolve.
As the pages turn in this conceptual picture book, groups of individuals work in concert, lifting a banner and protesting as well as resting and playing. Digital artwork from Wise (Magnolia Flower) incorporates collage elements and embellishments in portraying the communal scenes. On one spread, figures pass dishes at a candlelit table, while other pages show youths helping one another in the face of fear, donning wings, and contemplating well-known luminaries including Frida Kahlo and Marsha P. Johnson. Lines that embrace intersectional girlhood (“Some of us go by she/ And some of us go by they”) suggest both that “we are different people,/ Each
of us a different shape and size,/ A different wonder and a different wise” and that
“in our hearts, we are the same: We are a power, a movement,/ Pretty powerful.” As characters sow seeds and nurture the earth, final pages reveal a lush, easeful portrait: “Because when one girl is one the rise,/ It means everyone else is, too.” Characters are portrayed with various abilities, body types, and skin tones. Ages 4–8.