This is an empowering book with wonderfully colorful artwork.

This book is incredibly detailed while still being age appropriate. In the age where women are still fighting for equal opportunity, it's important to raise girls in a way that will allow them to pursue their dreams regardless of their gender. I liked the iterations of different historical figures, and the explanation of all those people in the back of the book. The illustration wasn't really my style, but I'm sure that kids wouldn't be all that perceptive on it. I would love to have this book in a mental health office lobby or at a nonprofit if I had one!

What I loved most about this book is how empowering it is. I loved reading about all of the amazing things women did, and the message the book teaches children (you can do anything, no matter what gender you are) is great. This book gives you the great opportunity to do some research yourself, and spend some extra time with your little one telling them all about the stories behind the amazing women mentioned in this story. The artwork is beautiful as well.

This book is an empowering vehicle for young girls and women. Each profile of a famous female is told in verse. It talks about their dream, suggests going to the library to find information and then gives the name of the famous person they are describing. From Madame Curie to every mother to every young girl their successes are discussed. The end of the book is a short paragraph summarizing their dreams and achievements. The illustrations are detailed, colourful and vibrant. This is a great book to be used during International Women's Day, Week or Year. This should be in all public, school and junior level classrooms.

This was a great, beautiful book with so many great examples and role models for children. It's important for books to have a variety of female role models for everyone to aspire to. There's everyone in here from scientists (Marie Curie) to sharpshooters (Annie Oakley) to activists (Aung San Suu Kyi). It's important to let girls know that they can grow up to aspire to be anything they want, which does just that. I would love to have this book as part of my classroom library and can think of many important discussions it can create in the classroom. I liked the art a lot - it was colorful and simple. The only thing I wish was different was that the names of the women were better integrated into the stories. They were footnotes at the bottom because of an effort to keep a line the same on each page about going to the library to find out more. The pattern was great for repetition, however, and there was a page at the end that explained a little more about each women. All in all, a really great book! Thank you, McArthur, for inspiring children to be their truest self and have great role models to look up to.

Great book for girls on true ladies who werent adventurous, brave, explorers, activisets and for each gave a poem, a name of a woman who did just that and told the girl each time to go to the library to find out about them. Cute idea and great places to start, but also thought it strange that for moms and leading countries it didn't give specif ice names but just many people... why not give names of a few that wrote books about their experiences or had books written about them? Also thought it would be good to find ways to be adventurous, brave, and activist like these true ladies... but maybe that's a follow up book...

An inquisitive girl wants to know what it would be like to do a lot of different things from being a cowgirl or a pirate to being a mom or an astronaut. So, she goes to the library to find out.

Through this curious girl's investigation What Would It Be Like? celebrates strong women throughout history. By giving a glimpse into the lives of a variety of women, some well-known and some not as well-known, the book serves as a springboard to further investigate these women's lives and find out what it would be like to be so many different things.

Now this is the type of picture story book I can get behind. Aimed at young girls (though there's no reason why young boys can't read it as well), this book runs through the motions of showing girls that if they can dream it, they can be it. It doesn't matter if it's in a male-centric occupation, there's room for girls in those areas as well. I was pleased that this book provided examples of jobs normally considered male (though I know these ideas are changing on a daily basis, and yay for that), such as cowboys, astronauts, the Presidency, scientists, etc.

It's lovely to see something that celebrates women in these areas of employment/life, and there's a tiny little bio of each woman on the back page.

Everything you would expect to get out of this book you did plus so much more. It is amazing. What a great and powerful look at famous, diverse, and influential women throughout history in an accessible and interesting way. I would say this is a good read for upper elementary students who will relate to these women with goals and ambitions and be able to take away from a story that they can do anything and be anything they want to be no matter the gender. I also like how this didn't just show doctors or scientists it showed famous artists and athletes also saying that the possibilities really are endless.

a great book to encourage girls, even from a small age, to dream big, to learn about women that stand out. I love this book and i like the amount of information that children can learn from it

An awesome book for girls everywhere, so they can see, if they haven't already, that they can choose to do anything they want and not just what's expected of them. I would definetely recommend it to my students.

I love the strong women role models and the recommendation to find out more about them at the library! I hope that there will be a sequel with more great women examples!

This was a picture book aimed at a slightly higher age than the normal books of this kind. I liked the lay out and the format used to encourage children to find out more about famous or historically significant women of the ages. It hopefully will give younger people food for though and show them that their dreams need not have limits.

A wonderful book to share with children, especially young girls. The reader follows a young girl full of questions about different careers and possibilities in life. The women listed are wonderfully diverse and positive influences for more research on each famous woman. There is only a tiny blurb at the end of the book about each woman, but hopefully enough to intrigue the reader to learn more. Great book.

What Would it Be Like is a picturebook by McArthur Krishna, Ayeshe Sadr, and Ishaan Dasgupta which is currently scheduled for release on June 28 2016. This encouraging book follows one young girl on her adventure to the library where she learns about an array of real-life women who made history with their bold ambitions finding out that girls can do anything! Would you like to sail the seas as a pirate like Jacquotte Delahaye? Swing, flip and sparkle as a trapeze artist like Antoinette Concello? Work toward making the world a better place as the president of a country, or touch lives as a mother? Readers will learn about amazing women who followed their dreams and believed anything was possible, while also learning that often the best thing to be is yourself!

What Would it Be Like is a book that encourages readers to research the things that interest them. It focuses on the careers and achievements of women, in hopes of encouraging girls to follow their dreams and do what inspires them. Each page shows the young character wondering what it would be like to be in a different profession, or spending their time differently. Whether it is as a trapeze artist, pirate, astronaut, or mother each choice is given with equal importance and respect. For specific careers there is a name suggested for library research or further reading, along with more details in the back of the book. The encouragement for this research and further exploration really made the book for me, because it is all well and good to say that you can follow your dreams and be whatever you want, but without showing what people have gone through to find their own success I find it to be a little hollow. So i have to applaud those that worked on the book for not just writing the expected platitudes, but by following it up with facts and the suggestion to continue independent researcher in the search for their own right path.

What Would it Be Like is an inspiring book, with great intention and results. I love the encouragement and inspiration it can bring to young readers, and the push toward not only follow your dreams and be yourself but to do research and find role models to help further encourage young people.

3.5 stars for the book.

I though the message of the book was very empowering for young girls, i.e. here's what other great women have done in their lives and you can read more about them. The book ends with "A true girl asked ..... what would it be like ... to be herself?" With the answer "She wanted to know, so she made choices every day to be as true as she could be."

At the very end of the book, the author includes a brief paragraph about the women mentioned in the book - Madame Curie, Annie Oakley, Sandra Day O'Connor, WWII spy Virginia Hall and many more. I would have preferred to see that information on the same pages devoted to each woman, rather than "She wanted to know, so she went to the library, where she learned about [woman's name]". As a kid, it would have frustrated me to have that great lead-up about the person, only to be told that I needed to go the library to learn more. Having that information right on the page would have held my interest as I read through the book.

Finally, I wasn't enamored with the illustrations for the book. They aren't very detailed and while colorful they seemed too simplistic for the book's content. I recently read The Pullman Porter which had GORGEOUS illustrations - rich and detailed - and I think something similar to that would have enhanced this book.

Very nice read!

An inventive way to get kids interested in the achievements of women through history. As a Canadian, I was concerned I wouldn't have the same emotional investment as others, but the books does a good job of offering a mix of women from around the world. I liked that "mothers" we're also included as a group deserving of accolades, but did not appreciate how it was individualized in the back of the book, as not all children have mothers as role models, or women to look up to. Otherwise, a book worth recommending.