If you are looking for some inspiring stories to read with your children or the little ones in your life during Women’ History Month (and beyond!), we have some great recommendations for books that center the real life stories of heroic women.
Children’s book publishers Holiday House and Peachtree have long been committed to sharing noteworthy books for children and teens depicting and celebrating women in history, whether they are little known or often celebrated. Offering a range of formats that honor notable and ordinary (but no-less-important) women from history, these upcoming and recent books are not to be missed.
Exposing young minds to the lives and stories of women throughout history is so crucial, as the data shows female writers and authors are still not equally represented in the academic world. Language learning platform Preply recently found in a study that out of the top 20 authors most studied by English Literature students across U.S. colleges, only 5 are women. Although we still have work to do to create more equal representation of women’s stories in our culture, it’s clear that we all benefit from listening and learning about a variety of people’s perspectives. So when we exclude women’s voices, especially women of color, when learning about history, it has an impact on how we determine the future.
If you are looking to play a role in reshaping the culture around the representation of women’s achievements and stories, below are 6 books you should add to your list that spark imagination around art, sustainability, nature, careers, music, activism and more.
1. Gifts from Georgia’s Garden
By Lisa Robinson; illustrated by Hadley Hooper (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House), for ages 4-8, on sale 3/19/24.
Most of us have heard the name Georgia O’Keeffe— she’s one of the most famous women in art history. But did you know that for most of her life, she lived on her own land in New Mexico, grew her own food, bought locally, and even made her own clothing? Georgia’s garden and her art fed and enriched one another, just as her bean plants enriched the soil and her home-grown feasts fed her friends. In spite of the era’s prejudice against female artists, Georgia lived and thrived in her verdant sanctuary well into old age.
Gifts from Georgia’s Garden illuminates the life and philosophy of a figure every child should know. There is additional context to O’Keeffe’s story in the back of the book, which invites families to try out her sustainable gardening techniques— and her pecan butterball cookies.
2. What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum
By Candace Fleming; Illustrated by Matthew Cordell (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House), for ages 4-8.
For years, the indomitable Isabella Stewart Gardner searched the world for magnificent artwork and filled her home with a truly unique collection, with the aim of turning it into a museum, which she established in 1903.
Isabella always did things her own way. One day she’d wear baseball gear to the symphony, the next, she’d be seen strolling down the street with zoo lions. It was no surprised that she was very particular about how she arranged her exhibits. They were not organized historically, stylistically, or by artist. Instead, they were arranged based on the connections Isabella felt toward the art, a connection she hoped to encourage in her visitors.
For years, her museum delighted generations of Bostonians and visitors with the collections arranged exactly as she wanted. But in 1990, a spectacular burglary occurred when two thieves disguised as police officers stole thirteen paintings, valued at $500 million, including a Rembrandt and a Vermeer. They have yet to be recovered, though a $10 million reward is still being offered for their safe return.
3. Cubs in the Tub: The True Story of the Bronx Zoo’s First Woman Zookeeper
By Candace Fleming; Illustrated by Julie Downing (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House), for ages 4-8.
When Bronx Zoo-keeper Fred brought home a lion cub, Helen Martini instantly embraced it. The cub’s mother lost the instinct to care for him. “Just do for him what you would do with a human baby,” Fred suggested…and she did. Helen named him MacArthur, and fed him milk from a bottle and cooed him to sleep in a crib. Soon enough, MacArthur was not the only cub bathed in the tub! The couple continues to raise lion and tiger cubs as their own, until they are old enough to return them to zoos. Helen becomes the first female zookeeper at the Bronx zoo, the keeper of the nursery.
Filled with adorable baby cats, this is a story about love, dedication, and a new kind of family.
4. Stitch by Stitch: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom
By Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon (Holiday House), for ages 7-10.
This picture book biography weaves together historical details, vibrant collages, and the words of her own journals to bring to light the life and beautiful work Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, the seamstress who bought herself and son out of slavery. Lizzy’s story of hardship and resilience offers an untold side of history during a time of great injustice and change.
Born enslaved in 1818 on a Virginian plantation, Lizzy experienced and witnessed unspeakable cruelty. When she was sent to workfor a tailor, her wages went to her master, not Lizzy. However, the beautiful gowns that Lizzy created attracted the attention of the wealthiest women in Virginia, even Mrs. Jefferson Davis. With money from her patrons, Lizzy bought her freedom and her son’s freedom working tirelessly stitch by stitch, going on to design gowns for the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and grow an influentialcareer.
This inspiring story about an unsung hero is beautifully illustrated with oil paint, cut paper and fabric collage and hand-embroidery by Elizabeth Zunon that brings Lizzy’s dresses to life. Connie Morrison writes with straightforward honesty and clarity, seamlessly including research on fashion, life, and politics of the time.
5. What Music!: The Friendship Between Beethoven and His Piano Maker, Nannette Streicher
By Laurie Lawlor; Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander (Holiday House), ages 6-9.
In 1787, aspiring yet unknown composer Ludwig van Beethoven arrives at young Nannette Stein’s home. What follows is a decades-long friendship that persists whether life hits a low or high note. Acclaimed nonfiction writer Laurie Lawlor deftly depicts how these two fascinating friends—a composer with hearing loss and a woman who became an innovative piano maker in a time that discouraged female entrepreneurship—fought the odds and worked together in perfect harmony.
The author of picture book biography Fearless World Traveler, Lawlor masterfully uses forgotten historical letters, a glossary, and rich back matter on both friends’ lives and art to introduce readers to the man behind the music, from his loud laughter to his crushing handshake.
In a tall, narrow building on a wide avenue
pianos plinked and plunked day and night.
Everyone in quiet Augsburg knew the Stein home.
What music!
6. Taking Off: Airborne with Mary Wilkins Ellis
By Emily Arnold McCully (Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House), ages 6-8.
As a child, Mary Wilkins Ellis longed to fly, but she had to wait until she was 16 before she could have her first lesson. She soon became the youngest licensed pilot in her English county, but then all civilian flight was banned when Germany launched its attacks on Britain in 1940. Mary was grounded.
One day she chanced to hear a radio appeal for Britons with pilot’s licenses—even women—to join the Air Transport Auxiliary and ferry brand new fighter planes to Royal Air Force bases. Mary immediately applied, and spent the rest of the war delivering hundreds of different kinds of aircraft—most of which she’d never flown before—forming lifelong bonds with her colleagues, surviving many a close call, and helping to save her country from destruction.
After the war she became a flight instructor, ran an air taxi service, then managed an airfield, the only woman in Europe to do so. In her spare time, she won rallies in her racing car. Mary’s childhood dream became a thrilling lifetime aloft, lasting until she died at 101.
With a variety of lived experiences, narratives and periods of history represented, we hope this list will spark the imagination of the young one in your life to continue the quest of seeking out inspiring women’s stories! You can find more selections from Holiday House and Peachtree.
