Discover The Girls Who Changed the World Series by Jackie French

Jackie French AM is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator, the 2014–2015 Australian Children’s Laureate and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. In 2016, Jackie became a Member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to children’s literature and her advocacy for youth literacy. She is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors and writes across all genres — from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi, to her much-loved historical fiction for a variety of age groups. ‘A book can change a child’s life. A book can change the world’ was the primary philosophy behind Jackie’s two-year term as Laureate.

Recommended for ages 10+, The Girls Who Changed the World series is an empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world. Collect them all for a wonderful gift to be read, re-read and treasured for years to come. Below, we’ve listed all 5 books so you can see what each one is about! The fifth book, Ming and Maria Explore the Universe, is out now!

Book #1: Ming and Flo Fight for the Future

Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books. So when Ming gets the chance to go back in time, she imagines herself changing destinies from a glittering palace or an explorer’s ship. Instead, she ends up in Australia in 1898, living a tough life as Flo Watson on a drought-stricken farm. Luckily, Ming is rescued by Flo’s Aunt McTavish. Wealthy Aunt McTavish belongs to Louisa Lawson’s Suffragist Society, who are desperately and courageously fighting for women’s rights. And Ming is determined to get involved, to make a difference. But change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?

Buy a copy of Ming and Flo Fight for the Future here.

Book #2: Ming and Marie Spy for Freedom

Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. So when Ming is thrust back in time to Belgium during WWI, only to be rescued from a burning cellar by Marie — an experienced spy at only twelve years of age — she finally has her proof. Marie is involved with a female secret resistance group who risk their lives to outwit the German troops. But Ming now faces a tough choice: will she send coded messages and risk her own life in this war on which the future depends? As Ming learns, change is never easy, so how can one girl change the world?

Buy a copy of Ming and Marie Spy for Freedom here.

Book #3: Ming and Hilde Lead a Revolution

Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. She’s faced danger and adventure when Herstory sent her to the past to witness girls’ bravery in the incredible feats left out of ‘histories’. Now Ming asks Herstory for another time-travelling quest – this time, one that is less confronting. Ming finds herself in relative luxury, heading to an unknown destination on a ship carrying royal Saxon sheep, travelling with the girls who care for them. What do female shepherds have to do with history? And is it even possible for sheep to be royal? As Ming knows only too well, change is never easy, so how can one girl – and a sheep – change the world?

Buy a copy of Ming and Hilde Lead a Revolution here.

Book #4: Ming and Ada Spark the Digital Age

Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. History’s sister, the mysterious Herstory, believes that the more you know about the past, the better you can understand the future. And so she now sends Ming to work as a maid in an isolated English mansion to see a girl change the world in 1829. But which girl? The young mistress of the house is lying in bed, recovering from the measles. Abandoned by her aristocratic mother and family, she may never walk – or even read and write – again. Ming becomes friends with another scullery maid, Hepzibah, who is desperately teaching herself to read and longs to free slaves, as she and her parents had been. But what hope has a scullery maid?

Buy a copy of Ming and Ada Spark the Digital Age here.

Book #5: Ming and Maria Explore the Universe

Ming has travelled through history to meet girls who have changed the world. However, this time is different as Herstory, History’s sister, promises to reveal to Ming something of her own past: her long-lost mother. When Ming washes up on the icy shores of Nantucket Island in 1836 she is saved by the elderly Mrs Sloe and the wealthy Miss Reynolds, but there is no sign of a woman who might be her mother. The island is home to Maria Mitchell, who at seventeen has already published her first papers on astronomy and will go on to inspire scientists around the world for generations to come. Maria’s future holds extraordinary promise and fame. But what about Ming? And who is her mother? In this final book in the Girls Who Changed the World series, Ming Qong discovers who she is, and how she, too, will change the world.