Great inspiration for your readers from lots of women from different backgrounds. A great book to read of time a refer back to. Some of the inspirational quotes are amazing.

An inspiring collection of letters and wisdom from women across a number of different backgrounds and fields and identities. A great read for young children, and anyone who may need the motivation from figures they can look up to. A worthwhile read; and I would recommend not reading this all in one sitting but rather over time.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for this free eARC

An inspiring collection of letters from powerful women all over the world.
Written for women and girls of all ages or better yet from rebel girls to rebel girls.
Some of the main points are truly wonderful and inspiring:

"Never give up on your dreams"
"Follow your curiosity and lead with your heart"
"Self-care is critical"

Dear Rebel shares many tips and words of wisdom perfect for any student who may feel unsure about the world around them. I love the positivity and hopeful tone used throughout this book.

Dear Rebel is a collection of letters, wisdom, and wishes from women to youngsters about life lessons and about finding their way authentically. Released 3rd Oct 2023 by Rebel Girls, it's 420 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's aimed at young people roughly 8-12 years old (Lexile 920L).

This is a beautifully illustrated collection full of advice and recollections from women from a broad number of backgrounds and areas of expertise including academics, political activists, athletes, artists, actors, writers, and more. The writers are from a wide variety of world cultures.

Representation is so important. It's nice to read about these inspiring women, and the wisdom they have to share. Worthwhile. This would make a superlative selection for home use, library acquisition, gifting, or school/classroom library.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

I enjoyed this new collection from Rebel Girls, but it felt like a lot of the "secrets" that were being shared by the women were repetitive. These books/essays are meant for a younger audience but I feel like the target audience is going to have a hard time sitting through 400+ pages with 125+ different entries.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebel Girls for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Here’s another fantastic addition to the Rebel Girls line-up of inspiring stories.

In Dear Rebel, readers take in the advice of 145 women who motivate girls age 8 and up with letters, poems, and essays. Each provide that often much needed push to dream big.

Words from each impressive individual are accompanied by photos and colorful backgrounds. The choice as to how you tackle this book is up to the individual reader. I went the traditional route reading each story in the order presented. You can also choose your favorites and begin with those using the handy “Content” listing at the front of the book.

Memorable ones for me include best selling Indian-American writer and advertising executive Alka Joshi who proclaims “All it takes is one person to believe in you…” Then there is adventurer Sally Kettle who urges you to keep trying despite your doubts and worries. One more: I smiled at young Cassidy Crowley’s Tips and Secrets for Starting Your Own Business.

Success is usually preceded by struggle and having these stories close by ensure that girls will be empowered to reach their goals.

In a Nutshell: An inspiring collection of letters, poems, anecdotes, and motivational write-ups on various topics written by rebel girls to rebel girls.

I have been a Rebel Girls fan ever since their first book, ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women’, came out in 2016. Since then, I have read quite a few of their offerings, though I have skipped some of their latest books as it was getting too repetitive for me. This book, however, promised a different approach, and I couldn’t resist picking it up.

The usual Rebel Girls books focus on the bios of inspiring teens and women (cis and trans) from across the world, with one page dedicated to the life story of the person, and the other containing their portrait (sketched by a woman artist) and one of their memorable quotes. This book ups the ante by not providing mere bios but by having penned articles by 125 women of varied ages, varied cultural backgrounds, varied skillsets, and varied achievements. The result is a dazzling array of stimulating essays by superstar achievers. As always, the book is inclusive, with representation from all populated continents and varied racial backgrounds. Some of the “women” are just kids, proving to the readers that they are never too young to make a change.

I loved the range of the topics covered by these women. Since they all come from diverse backgrounds, their words also span a range of emotions and advice. Motivating yourself especially after failure, being accepting towards disabled people and people of races others than yours, taking care of the planet, building a big company, beginning your own small business, using your brains/body, pushing the bar – the list of topics is exhaustive and covers almost everything little girls might need to know. These achievers come from sports, politics, business, dance and music, movies and TV shows, environment and nature, and many other fields, but their learnings can be applied in any discipline as the base values are the same. Many pages have a QR code that can be scanned for bonus stories and interviews.

Rather than sticking only to inspiring pep talks, the women choose an assortment of writing styles to put across their point. Thus we get letters (either to the readers or to their own past selves or to a particular family member), anecdotes from their past, motivational essays, recipes that they love, encouraging poems, life lessons, instructions on how to go ahead with certain tough tasks. This variety works in favour of the book because having only motivational write-ups across 400+ pages would have been boring, for sure. The only format I didn’t like were the letters addressed to family members, usually daughters. This created a disconnect between the reader and the content.

I also loved the fact that the book included actual photographs of most of the contributors. Don’t get me wrong: I loved the illustrated portraits drawn by diverse female artists in the other Rebel Girls books. But with such a personal topic, an actual photo works way better.

A slight shortcoming that affected my experience was that the write-ups had not been compartmentalised based on topics. Having 125 contributors is a big deal, and ensures that the book is the lengthiest of the Rebel Girls books at 422 pages. (I think this is too long for this genre and the target age group.) But as I was reading the content sequentially, I found the going somewhat jumpy. One write-up on business tips, the immediate next one on a life-changing personal tragedy, the next one on a challenging adventurous accomplishment, the next one on a transgender woman’s coming-out story – you see how the topics flit across random experiences. This won’t be a problem if readers don’t read the book sequentially but open a random page and read it for their daily dose of pep talk.

One trivial point that most little readers won’t even notice, but that I adored: One of the articles is by Randi Zuckerberg. Many might realise from her surname that she is Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, but the book doesn’t mention her brother nor Facebook in her bio. I love that the authors referred to her by her own self-identity than as “Mark Zuckerberg’s sister.” This is something many journalists are yet to learn.

All in all, if you are looking for one hefty yet inspiring book for the middle-graders in your life, this book is perfect. I wouldn’t recommend this only to girls. Everyone needs a dose of inspiration and inclusive thinking, so this should work for all kids of the tween age range (and even for teens.)
Don’t read it in one go; savour the write-ups over a period of time, and watch them make a difference to your thinking.

4 stars.

My thanks to Rebel Girls and NetGalley for the DRC of “Dear Rebel: 125+ Women Share Their Secrets to Taking on the World”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

It is very easy to recommend this collection from Rebel Girls. In these pages many women offer some perspective/advice to the young reader. The letters are thoughtful and inspiring, and feature women from many walks of life.

With more than 100 entries, it is hard to pick a few to highlight. I note that some of the contributors are people whose names I know while many others were new to me. Among those I recognized are Melinda French Gates, Nadiya Hussain, Drew Barrymore, and Laurene Powell Jobs. That said, each of these communications has meaning and value. Spend time with the writers’ words and also take a look at the photos. Suggest to a girl that you know that she browse in this book. It will be worth her time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Rebel Girls for this title. All opinions are my own.

This entry in the Rebel Girls series includes 145 letters and photographs from diverse women sharing their wisdom and advice. The collection represents activists, inventors, entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and women with many other areas of expertise, as well as different ages and cultures. I was delighted by the inclusion of women with disabilities. The text is inspirational, and I loved the fun, colorful graphic design.

This is an inspiring book for children, but also for adults who need an infusion of positivity. Reading these women’s letters felt like getting a pep talk and a hug from a group of friends.

Thanks to Rebel Girls for providing me with an ARC sample through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

I always loved the Rebel Girls book and read a number of them over the years. I appreciate that they show girls how you can live your dream in spite of obstacles in your gender, race, body, mind, sexuality etc. One of those inspirational stories is good for me, but over a hundred can be too much, especially as there were repetitions in this book. I had also expected more practical advice which only appeared in a small number of stories or letters. I´m excited as to what will appear on the pages that were intentionally left blank. On the whole, yes to Rebel Girls, but this was a rare not wholly positive exception.
Thanks to Rebel Girls and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Rebel Girls once again gives us a wide variety of voices giving young women options and views into different worlds. There are so many diverse stories and letters that it would be impossible to list them without just having you read the book. The economic levels vary as well as education, physical ability, race, religion, rainbow, and age.

I love the wide variety of everything from simple advice to detailed stories of events to even recipes. There is a little bit of everything. Dear Rebel is to be savored and not gobbled down in one sitting. I love these types of books and Rebel Girls once again delivers a book that young people can refer to over and over again for inspiration and consolation.

What's not to love about 125 inspirational women, from all walks of life, sharing their experience and advice? Dear Rebel offers all this to your Rebel Girl. There's bound to be letters from people she knows and loves and amazing women she is yet to discover and be inspired by.
It's a book your Rebel Girl will benefit from dipping in and out of when she needs motivation, kinship or inspiration. Because of that, I think it would be a better experience if the letters were organised by theme. so that if you want to read about a Rebel Girl's experience with, for example, bullying or self confidence, or racism, you could head straight to that section, so the letter you read has the maximum impact.

Thank you to Rebel Girls for the opportunity to review advanced copy of the book. The finished copy of the book will be such a resource to the Rebel Girls we are raising, with a wealth of advice and inspiration. As a reviewer, it was quite frustrating that so much content was missing in the review copy. However, the occurs with some of the more famous names, so I can understand that there must have been scheduling issues involved etc, Thanks again.

This book was so adorable, I loved everything about it, the illustrations were so well done, they suited the book perfectly, the story was amazing as well, even thought is very short I could really connect with the characters. I’m sure the kids are going to be just as enthralled with this amazing book as I was. I will definitely recommend! Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this early copy

I received an electronic ARC from Rebel Girls through NetGalley.
A different style book from other Rebel Girl volumes. In this book, readers hear from the rebel girls themselves. Over 125 women share a letter from their personal story. Some are a short vignette; others take readers through their whole lives. Each wraps around the theme of empowering girls to believe in themselves and strive to be the best they can be. To find their passion and ignore naysayers. The variety of styles is appealing. This can be read straight through but may have stronger impact if a reader selects a few to focus on at a time.

it’s a nice collection overall but i personally prefer the others of this rebel series where the reader learns about people and what they achieved.

if you enjoy letters and feeling like a book speaks directly to you and wants to give you specifically a message?
this is a great one!

if you dislike the letter format and liked the previous format of this rebel book series this might not be as big of a hit for you.
this worth look but don’t go in expecting the same format and style as previously.

This is such a great book with so many important stories! I love the letters and everything about it! It belongs in every library!

Rebel Girls series books are adored in our house - they're perfect for the special young ladies (and men!) in our lives either at home, school or gifting to others to find motivation and empowerment.
My only complaint is that many of the pages were intentionally left blank until publishing and therefore couldn't give a full review of content. Everything that was available to read, as always, was fabulous!

Thank you to Rebel Girls and NetGalley for this ARC!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Rebel Girls for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review*

Dear Rebel is the best guide to the amazing little Rebels that made quite a difference in this world. I absolutely loved this. As ever I adore EVERYTHING Rebel girls publish so yeah. Go buy it, like yesterday.

Dear Rebel is a great addition to the Rebel Girls series. It was nice learning more about different accomplished public figures and I liked the mix of letters and poems.