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The Radical Element: 12 Stories of Daredevils, Debutantes, and Other Dauntless Girls

The Radical Element: 12 Stories of Daredevils, Debutantes, and Other Dauntless Girls

Reviewed by: Sarah Cropley - Scarborough Public Library, Scarborough, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: September 18, 2018

Review

Jessica Spotswood has collected twelve stories from various YA authors exploring American culture from bold female perspectives. Settings range all across the country and the timeline from Savannah, Georgia in 1838 to Boston, Massachusetts in 1984. In Dahlia Adler's Daughter of the Book, an Orthodox Jewish girl desperately wants to study the Torah, despite her family and culture's insistence that it was only for men. Marieke Nijkamp writes the story of Carrie, a girl who is coded as autistic though (in keeping with the time the story was set) this is not explicitly stated in the text of the story. Carrie is observing the arguments of the Supreme Court as they debate the forced sterilization of so-called feeble minded people. Sara Frizan tells of Sohelia, sent to the US by her parents to avoid the war in Iran, who finds strength and passion in music and singing for a punk band. Each of the twelve stories highlights a culture, perspective, or circumstance that has not been given much attention in previous historical works. A solid collection that will show many people a mirror of themselves in history, while also giving them a view of someone else.

Overall Book Score: very good