At The Library: Rebel Girls
Take A Deep Dive Into Women’s History Month
By Rachel Reddick
Park Hill Branch Librarian
March is Women’s History month, and your friendly neighborhood librarian at the Park Hill branch library has plenty of ways to help you dive into that history.
Want to make it a fast lesson and get a movie? Denver Public Library has gems like A League of Their Own — a classic from Penny Marshall about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Want more of a straight documentary? Definitely give Makers: Women Who Make America or Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology a shot. Both give insight into women’s various creative contributions.
Maybe you’re more bookworm than cinephile. I highly recommend Circe by Madeline Miller, which is a reinterpretation of the Greek myth with gorgeous imagery and lush language. While the story is cataloged firmly in the fiction category, mythology is a reflection of the society that tells it after all.
But perhaps you’re more a nonfiction kind of reader. Last year gave us the publication of The Light of Days: the Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion. A detailed account of real life WWII heroes who fought to save themselves and their families in the midst of the holocaust, it’s available in both an adult and a young reader’s edition, which is appropriate for younger teens and advanced readers.
Have a younger reader you’re hoping to engage on the topic? GoodNight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World by Elena Favilli is a colorfully illustrated guide to stories of such remarkable women as Josephine Baker, Marjane Satrapi, and Ada Lovelace. You can also look into Brad Meltzer’s popular biography I Am series, which outlines the lives of women like Billie Jean King, Anne Frank, and Frida Kahlo.
Local history has lots of interesting women to research as well. Our sister branch, the Pauline Robinson branch, was named after an extraordinary community member. As a graduate of the University of Denver in 1943, she was the first Black librarian in the city of Denver. She started the Reading is Fundamental to Denver program and became the chairwoman to the National Children’s Book Week, which eventually became our ongoing Summer of Adventure program.
When Robinson discovered how few books featuring Black heritage and history were in the Denver Public Library collections, she personally organized a bake sale of 150 pies to raise funds to purchase what became a core collection for the system.
Robinson was also a civil rights activist who, among other things, helped integrate Lakeside Amusement Park and began the Negro History Week Celebration, which grew to be a part of the greater Denver Black History month. More information on her and other prominent historical figures can be found through our Western History and Genealogy collections, much of which has been digitized and is available on our website, at denver library.org.
The Park Hill branch library is at 4705 Montview Blvd, and the Pauline Robinson branch is at 5575 E 33rd Ave. For hours of operation and details on in-person and online programming for both neighborhood libraries, check out denverlibrary.org.