Review Detail

Vigdis: A Book About the World's First Female President

Kids Nonfiction 263

The First Elected Female Head of State

July 02, 2024

Overall rating

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Learning Value

4.0

Born in 1930, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was raised in Reykjavík, Iceland. She loved nature, and had many varied interests. After World War II, when she was 19, she went to study in France, and loved the French culture. Upon her return home to Iceland, she held a variety of jobs, including teaching French both in the classroom and on television, working as a tourist guide, and running a theater. She was also the first single woman in Iceland to adopt a child alone. She was well known in the country, and after a women's strike in 1975, was asked to run for president. She had little interest in this, and was not planning on running until she got a letter from a group of fisherman who urged her to run. Even in 1980, the thinking of most people was that a woman couldn't be president, but Vigdís won the election and became the first woman to hold an elected position as a head of state. She served for 16 years, and always tried to do the best for her country. She lived in the official presidential residence, Bessastaðir, and was fond of visiting school groups. She would even take three birch tree saplings with her to present to them; one each in honor of the girls, the boys, and the children yet to be born!

Good Points

Vigdís is still alive in 2024, and I don't feel too bad using her first name, since even the phone books in Iceland were arranged by first name rather than last because of the practice of giving children a last name comprised of their father or mother's first name combined with "son" or "dottir", so that each member of a family could have a different last name! The other item that caught my interest more than it should have was her Bessastaðir cookies even though women politicians often have a difficult relationship with baking; if I could find a recipe for them that wasn't in grams, I would try to make them!

This book is set up as though a young child were interviewing Vigdís at her house, and is illustrated in a colorful chalk pastel style. The hand lettered text is woven between the pictures, and there is a lot of information presented. The pictures also have lots of detail, and do a good job of capturing the clothing of the various points of time.

Even though I was reading the news in 1980, I was unaware of Vigdís' groundbreaking career, so I'm glad to add this to my library of picture books about women politicians, which includes Aronson's Abzuglutely!, Bryant's Fall Down Seven Times, Stand Up Eight: Patsy Takemoto Mink and the Fight for Title IX, Charles' Katanji Brown Jackson: A Justice for All, and Warren's Stacey Abrams: Lift Every Voice.