Great biography of Madam C.J. Walker, an amazing woman! Broken down into chapters based on her life, easy to read and understand for about ages 8 and up. Very inspiring, I would encourage all girls and young women to read this and take Madam C.J. Walker as a role model. Working hard, never giving up, helping others and fighting injustice, she did it all, and with style.
Looking forward to adding it to our library's collection.



The link to the Rebel Girls Chapter Books Press Kitdid not work for me, 'server IP address could not be found.'

I want to thank Net Galley and the publisher for providing this Arc in exchange for an honest review.
I loved reading this book. The pacing was well done. It was such an enjoyable read. I really like how the time jumps were not clunky and flowed nicely together.
I never knew about Sarah Breedlove, aka Madam CJ Walker. But now that I do, I can appreciate how strong of a woman she was. She was known as America’s first female self-made millionaire. When she died, she was worth about 600,000 which now is equivalent to 6 million dollars. “She told the story of all the doors that had been slammed in her face. Because she was flash. Because she was a woman. Because she was poor. But when she’d put her mind to it, she had built the biggest hair product empire the country had ever seen. And she had to use all of that money and influence for something positive,”.
Sarah was such an inspiring woman. Not only did she create such an amazing product, but she cared about the wellbeing of other black people. From employing over 40,000 African American women and men to founding the National Negro Cosmetics Manufacturers Association in 1917, she showed that money did not always matter, the people mattered. She showed how strong of a person she was when even though the YMCA turned her down, she still contributed to it. She was also one of the many people to become an activist during the anti-lynching movement.
During her speech at the 1917 Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culturists Union in Philadelphia she showed the women that they were too were powerful and it doesn’t matter what others say or do, if you have the will power you can do anything. And that was what she did.

Read about history's first black Businesswomen aka entrepreneur. Born out of slavery from losing parents in childhood to plucking cotton in fields to becoming the revolution. Madam C. J. Walker astonished me in every way. I'm dumbfounded to find a great woman in the 18th century.

She has a valuable lesson for every one of us: to dream of possibility.
There are beautiful illustrations, and the book itself is so pretty.
I would close my eyes and convince everyone to read this book.

Thank you, Rebel Girls, for your marvelous work.

I loved this book and I thought the whole thing was excellent, it is well paced, I liked the length of the chapters and the way that Sarah’s story was told. I think the cover is perfect for the book too.

This book focussing on the fascinating Sarah Breedlove (AKA Madam C.J. Walker) who became an outstanding entrepreneur who led the field in her time and whose products still dominate the black hair care industry today.

I only knew a little about her but she had such a troubled life at time, she fought on and proved against the odds that she could succeed and brought that success to others too that would have had little opportunity without her help. She is a true inspiration.

I thought that this book was excellent, it is 5 stars from me for this one, it is one that I will be very highly recommending and I am really looking forward to seeing what else the Rebel Girls release now too!!

In Madam C.J. Walker Builds a Business, Sarah Breedlove (AKA Madam C.J. Walker) reinvents and rebrands herself as a forceful entrepreneur whose products still dominate the black hair care industry today.

Born on the same plantation where her parents were once enslaved—Sarah is the first child in her family born free. When Sarah is just a girl, she learns the value of hard work. She cooks, she cleans, she picks cotton, she does laundry, and she babysits.  By fourteen, Sarah is a wife and by eighteen she is a mother.  From the stress of backbreaking labor and having to grow up so quickly, Sarah’s hair begins to fall out! Instead of falling into despair, Sarah learns how to take care of her hair and invents her own recipe to encourage her hair to grow.

But Sarah has a problem. She can’t get people to buy her products at first. So, she rebrands herself as “Madam C.J. Walker,” a fancy high society lady with the authority and know-how to help black women with their hair. As Madam C.J. Walker, she builds a business empire, dominates the black hair care market with her natural products, and offers opportunities for other poor washerwomen in her community to have a path to financial freedom. With her immense wealth, she treats herself too. She buys herself cars, fancy dresses, and a mansion with 34 rooms!

This is the story of a leader in the hair care industry, which is now a multibillion-dollar industry, but it’s also a tale of the importance of empowering women to become economically independent.- Goodreads

This is going to be a short review. As a disclaimer, this is a non-fiction read geared towards, I would say middle school readers. This book is straight to the point, detailed but most importantly inviting. The writing is so inviting that you want to know the full story, the true story about Madam CJ Walker. 

What I loved most about this book was that, I had no follow up questions. It answered everything I needed and wanted to know without dragging the book on with a lot of fluff. I only knew the basis Madam CJ Walker first black female millionaire, created a hair empire. I didn't know she had a daughter, that she was married twice, that she had a salon as well as a manufacturing company. There was so much more to her story other than the fact that she was rich and I loved the fact that this book gave all that information in a short amount of time.

Overall, I highly recommend adding this book to your library. It is simple to read, leaves no stone un-turned and pays respect. 

Overall, 

5 Pickles

This book is targeted to a young elementary school aged audience. It is divided into short chapters and has beautiful, vibrant illustrations. Madam C J Walker Builds a Business tells the story of Sarah Breedlove from when she was the first in her family born in freedom, not slavery, through her remarkable business success and accomplishments. Sarah faced many obstacles including the closing of her segregated school, the deaths of her parents, her difficult time living with a sister and her sister's demanding husband, her early marriage, becoming a parent and her husband's violent death. The book shows how Sarah went from this background that included the most menial jobs to becoming Mrs. Walker and a woman who was incredibly successful in building her business centered on caring for African American women's hair.

This is a detailed, readable biography. There are additional sections at the end of the book to encourage further learning. This book should be in classrooms and is highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.

This one is liberating to start with!!!!

The first few lines will have you so proud of you being a girl or a woman that you are today. The struggles of the women decades ago have been so beautifully portrayed in this short read. There's this story of the first generation of girls attending school for the first time after the abolition of slavery. And no more cotton picking or child labour. Damn, it felt so good to read about it.

But everything ended so soon for this to be true. And the girls were back to work in the fields.
And this is the story of a girl, Sarah, who had learnt to dream and work her way up inspite of all the hardships she had faced ever since she became an orphan at a young age. In between she had perfected a recipe, dreamed of becoming a barber, perfected her craft and became one of the most influential women fighting for the rights of black women. Later she came to be known as Madam C J Walker.

This story is so good. Simple and easy to read. The art work is so beautiful and descriptive of the content. One of the most powerful reads of the year. Highly recommended for the middle grade age group.

Thank you so much #NetGalley for providing me with a copy of #MadamCJWalkerBuildsABusiness

I love the Rebel Girls line of books and this was no exception. Madam C.J. Walker was a woman I had never heard of before and it was a delight to learn about her with my children

***Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

A wonderful look at one of the African American woman self-made millionaire. Madam C.J. Walker has an inspiring story that reflects what a strong spirit and hard-working person she was.

This is a wonderful story of the life of Madam C.J. Walker.

For those who only know that she made hair products, this shows from her origins as the daughter of former slaves, now share croppers, who could not afford to send her to school.

I was not aware of all her back story, or just how hard she struggled to get where she did get.

What an amazing woman, and what a well written biography.
<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/madam-cj-walke1.png" alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5445" />

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This is a nice branch out from the popular Rebel Girls biography anthologies. I see it becoming very popular.