Pink Boots and Bold Spirits: Celebrating Women Who Dared

At the library, we are always getting requests from schoolkids who are researching explorers - usually men like Vasco da Gama, Leif Erikson, Hernando de Soto, Marco Polo, or Ernest Shackleton.   Here at abcreads, we are choosing to take a little time to celebrate their counterparts, female explorers past and present. The following are some titles of derring-do that you won't want to miss!


Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer by Mireya Mayor

The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal by Vicki Constantine Croke

To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa by Pat Shipman

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe by Glynis Ridley

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven

Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman

They Went Whistling: Women Wayfarers, Warriors, Runaways, and Renegades by Barbara Holland

No Horizon is So Far: Two Women and Their Extraordinary Journey Across Antarctica by Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft, with Cheryl Dahle