Well-illustrated tales of six women of the Middle Ages: Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, Christine de Pisan and Margaret Paston. Readable; fun; The limited bibliography refers to original and authoritative sources—a good starting place for further research. This could easily be classified as a YA book. I wish I had read something like it in my formative years. ( )

Interesting text, extremely well illustrated with pictures from medieval illuminated manuscripts. The women considered in this book are so different from each other that the choice of subjects seemed quite random, and I found some parts of much more interest than others. The most interesting fact I gleaned was that news of Joan of Arc's extraordinary career inspired Christine de Pisan to write her final, highly insightful, work. This made me realize how much better the book could have been if there were more connections between the lives of the subjects. ( )