Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2025 In 1894, at a time when girls and women were discouraged from venturing out of their homes alone, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (aka Annie Londonderry), a young Latvian Jewish immigrant to Boston, accepted a bet from two businessmen that a woman could not bicycle around the world in 15 months. Stacked against Annie’s chances was the reality that she didn’t know how to ride a bike and that she barely weighed 100 pounds (bicycles were very heavy then). This absorbing picture book chronicles how Annie used ingenuity and grit to complete the journey. The illustrations brilliantly capture the scope of her quest, filled with maps, blown-up newspaper articles, and sepia-toned photograph-like illustrations that show Annie at some of her destinations: the Pyramids of Giza, the Arc de Triomphe, Moscow’s Red Square. The book focuses on the woman's determination, her creativity in adapting to conditions, and her resourcefulness in getting funding. Annie won the bet. In doing so, the ending emphasizes, she “helped change the way the world viewed women.” - Copyright 2025 Booklist.