“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.”-Michelle Obama, Keynote Address at Young African Women Leaders Forum
March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of past and contemporary history and change-makers. Whether the Black women and girls featured in the books listed are activists or artists, sports or STEM stars, poets or politicians, their stories inspire readers to become achievers. Educators, families, and community leaders can foster courage and hope by sharing these wonderful books with young children and teens. For more great book ideas, click on these past Women’s History Month posts, A Made Up Mind: 15 Picture Books on Activists, Black Women in STEM: 12 Children’s Books, and 15 Books about Young History Makers. Happy Women’s History Month! Our stories matter.
1 Michelle’s Garden: How the First Lady Planted Seeds of Change
Sharee Miller | Little, Brown BYR | 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
2 Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston
Alicia D. Williams | Jacqueline Alcántara | Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy | 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
3 One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Mission
Katherine Johnson | Joylette Hylick | Katherine Moore | Charnelle Pinkney Barlow | 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
4 The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read
Rita Lorraine Hubbard | Oge Mora | Schwartz & Wade | PB | 2020 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
5 A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story
Sharon Langley | Amy Nathan | Floyd Cooper | Abrams BYR | PB | 2020 | Amazon | IndieBound
6 Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman’s Dreams Took Flight
Karyn Parsons | R. Gregory Christie | Little, Brown BYR | 2020 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
7 Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles
Michelle Meadows | Ebony Glenn | Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) | 2020 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
8 She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm
Katheryn Russell-Brown | Eric Velasquez | Lee & Low Books | PB | 2020 | Amazon | IndieBound |Bookshop
9 A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks
Alice Faye Duncan | Xia Gordon | Sterling Children’s Books | 2019 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
10 Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver
Tami Charles | Claire Almon | Albert Whitman | 2019| PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
11 Coretta Scott
Ntozake Shange | Kadir Nelson | Katherine Tegen Books | 2009 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
12 Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
Andrea Pinkney | Brian Pinkney | Little, Brown BYR | PB | 2007 | Amazon | IndieBound | Bookshop
13 Becoming: Adapted for Young Readers
Michelle Obama | Delacorte BYR | 2021 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
14 Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
Nikki Grimes | Bloomsbury Children’s Books | 2021 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
15 Mighty Justice (Young Readers Ed.): The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Dovey Johnson Roundtree | Katie McCabe | Jabari Asim | Roaring Brook Press | 2020 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
16 Brave. Black. First.: 50 African American Women Who Led the Way
Cheryl Hudson | Erin K. Robinson | Crown BYR | 2020 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
17 Claudette Colvin Refuses to Move: Courageous Kid of the Civil Rights Movement (Courageous Kids)
Ebony Joy Wilkins | Mark Simmons | Capstone Press | 2020 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
18 Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box
Evette Dionne | Viking BYR | 2020 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
19 Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington’s Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away, (YRE)
Erica Armstrong Dunbar | Kathleen Van Cleve | Aladdin | 2019 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
20 This Is Your Time
Ruby Bridges | Delacorte BYR | 2020 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
21 Trailblazers: Beyoncé: Queen of the Spotlight
Ebony Joy Wilkins | Random House | MG | 2020 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
22 Women and the Civil Rights Movement
Kesha Grant | Children’s Press | 2020 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
23 Child of the Dream (Memoir of 1963)
Sharon Robinson | Scholastic Press | 2019 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
24 Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
Vashti Harrison | LB Kids | 2017 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
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