March is Women’s History Month! Here are several wonderful books to teach and inspire about women, their accomplishments as well as their challenges, throughout history.
Brave Girl by Michelle Markel and Melissa Sweet is for students in 2nd through 4th grade. It’s a picture book biography of Clara Lemlich, the Ukrainian immigrant who led the 1909 Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike by American women workers to demand fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect.
Just Like Josh Gibson by Angela Johnson and Beth Peck, for students in 2nd through 4th grade, is the story about a girl baseball player growing up in the 1940’s.
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren for students in 3rd through 5th grade is the classic story of a brave, creative, independent girl living on her own with a horse and a monkey.
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson and Vanessa Brantley-Newton is a picture book for kids in 3rd through 5th grade about the Children’s March led by nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks.
You Should Meet Women Who Launched the Computer Age by Laurie Calkhoven and illustrated by Alyssa Petersen, for kids in 3rd through 5th grade, tells the story of six computer programmers who created the first programmable computer in 1946, but were not given credit for their work because they happened to be women.
Who is Sonia Sotomayor? by Megan Stine is for kids in 3rd through 5th grade. It tells the story of Sonia Sotomayor, a girl who was born and raised in the South Bronx to parents who immigrated from Puerto Rico and grew up to be a Supreme Court Justice.
Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story by S.D. Nelson the biography of Buffalo Bird, a Hidatsa woman born around 1839 by the Missouri River in the Dakotas is for kids in 3rd through 5th grade.
Fly Girls: The Daring American Women Pilots Who Helped Win WWII by P. O’Connell Pearson, for readers in 6th through 10th grade tells the story of the 1,100 Women Airforce Service Pilots, also called ‘WASPs’ who flew planes during World War II.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly is for readers in 6th through 8th grade and tells the story of an 11-year-old girl in 1899 who learns about animals and nature from her grandfather in Texas.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly is for readers in 6th through 9th grade and tells the true story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations made space travel possible, while they also faced the challenges of racism, sexism, and discrimination. This story was also made into an award winning movie.
Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Dow Phumiruk is for students in 3rd through 5th grade and tells the story of the woman who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.
Patience Wright by Peggy Deitz Shea and Bethanne Andersen is for students in 3rd through 5th grade. It tells the story of Patience Wright who was born in 1725 in the American Colonies during the Revolutionary War. She was a talented artist, joining her sister in a wax-sculpting business and then moving alone to England where she became a spy for the colonies. She hid messages in the sculpted busts she sent to her sister’s waxworks in America.
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges is for students in 5th through 7th grade. This book tells the story of a brave six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges who attended an all-white school in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960 when the process of desegregation began. The story is told in Ruby Bridge’s own words as well as in quotations from writers and from other adults who knew her.
Nothing Stopped Sophie by Cheryl Bardoe, for students in 3rd through 5th grade tells the story of Sophie’s Germain, a French mathematician and physicist. When she was a child, her parents took away her candles to prevent her from studying math. When she was a young woman, a professor discovered that the homework sent to him under a male pen name came from Sophie. She won a prize for her proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem. In spite of Sophie’s obvious genius, she dealt with obstacles and challenges as a woman in the 1700’s in a male-dominated field.
Your Life in Motion: A Guided Journal for Discovering the Fire in You by Misty Copeland adapted for readers in 7th through 10th grade. The book is a memoir by the American Ballet Theatre’s first African American principal dancer, Misty Copeland.
When Marian Sang by Pam Muñoz Ryan is for students in 3rd through 6th grade
This book tells the story of her struggle to overcome prejudice and follow her dream of becoming a musician. She performed a concert for a mixed audience of 75,000 people in a “pre-Civil Rights America”, making history and eventually achieving her dream of singing in the opera.
Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed for students in 1st through 3rd grade is a picture book biography about Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to travel to space.
The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming for readers in 3rd through 7th grade
tells the story of ten teenage girls working in a secret British code-breaking facility during World War II. The girls deciphered Nazi codes and helped the allies defeat Hitler and the Nazis.
Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson for students in 3rd through 7th grade is the autobiography of the naturalist, Rachel Carson, and is written in verse. It tells the story of her childhood in rural Pennsylvania where her love of animals and the natural world developed.
This is only a small sample of myriad books about women that teach and inspire. Some of the girls that read these books may someday be the authors or the subject of more books like these in the future.
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