Bad girls : sirens, Jezebels, murderesses, thieves, and other female villains / Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple ; illustrated by Rebecca Guay.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Bad, mad, or thoroughly rotten -- Delilah (circa 110 BCE), a mere snip of a girl -- Jezebel (9th century BCE), a perfectly bad queen -- Cleopatra (69-30 BCE), the queen of denial -- Salome (circa 14-71 CE), a little strip of a girl -- Anne Boleyn (circa 1500-1536), she lost her head for love -- Bloody Mary (1516-1558), a woman of burning faith -- Elisabeth Bathory (1560-1614), Countess Bloodbath -- Moll Cutpurse (circa 1584-1659), high directress of the Black Dogs -- Tituba (circa 1670s-?), one witchy woman -- Anne Bonney (late 1600s-1720s) and Mary Read, pirates in petticoats -- Peggy Shippen Arnold (1760-1804), bride of treason -- Catherine the Great (1729-1796), queen of coups -- Rose O'Neal Greenhow (1817-1864), the rebel rose -- Belle Starr (1848-1889), belle of the bad-boy ball -- Calamity Jane (circa 1852-1903), courtin' calamity -- Lizzie Bordon (1860-1927), one whacky woman -- Madame Alexe Popova (1850-1909), she popped over three hundred -- Pearl Hart (circa 1871-1925), mama's wild child -- Typhoid Mary (1869-1938), a cook without a conscience -- Mata Hari (1876-1917), the spy who loved everyone -- Ma Barker (circa 1873-1935), mother knows worst -- Beulah Annan (circa 1901-1928) and Belva Gaertner (circa 1885-1965), Chicago's merry murderesses -- Bonnie Parker (1910-1934), Clyde's girl -- Virginia Hill (1916-1966), gangster girlfriend -- Conclusion: Modern times and changing gender roles.

"Meet twenty-six of history's most notorious women. Each bad girl has a rotten reputation, but there are two sides to every tale."--Amazon.com.

Harlot or hero? Liar or lady? There are two sides to every story. Meet twenty-six of history's most notorious women, and debate alongside authors Yolen and Stemple--who appear in the book as themselves in a series of comic panels--as to each girl's guilt or innocence.