30th December Jeanette Winter (1939 -7th November 2025)

self portrait of Jeanette Winter

While delving into lists that are published at the end of years, I learned that children's author Jeanette Winter had died on the 7th of November, 2025 in New York. I was very sad to read this and know that there may be no more wonderful picture books written or illustrated by her. I love her books, especially those that promote the strength and initiatives of women in this world. Sharing her books with students in the library has lead to so many really inspiring discussions. I am always amazed to see and hear what very young students take from reading biographies and stories based on real-life events.

Many of her books told stories about accomplished real-life women, including Josefina, about artist Josefina Aguilar; My Name Is Georgia, about painter Georgia O’Keeffe; Emily Dickinson’s Letters to the World; Beatrix, about author Beatrix Potter, and Sisters, about tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Her 2019 book Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet has been translated into 21 languages.

Some of my favourites:

Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan

Tells the story of a young girl in Afghanistan who attends a secret school for girls.

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq

Alia Muhammad Baker’s library in Basra, Iraq, has been a meeting place for those who love books for the past fourteen years. Now war has come, and Alia fears that the library—along with the thirty thousand books within it—will be destroyed forever.

Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia

Luis loves to read, but soon his house in Colombia is so full of books there’s barely room for the family. What to do? Then he comes up with the perfect solution—a traveling library! He buys two donkeys—Alfa and Beto—and travels with them throughout the land, bringing books and reading to the children in faraway villages.

The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life With the Chimps

Jane Goodall, the great observer of chimpanzees. Follow Jane from her childhood in London watching a robin on her windowsill, to her years in the African forests of Gombe, Tanzania

The Tale of Pale Male 

Here is the incredible true story of a Red-tailed Hawk that makes himself at home in the most unlikely of places--atop a high-rise apartment building in New York City.Named Pale Male by his many fans, this majestic bird not only endures in this urban environment, he thrives.

See her other titles here.

Jeanette's son, Jonah Winter is also a children's book creator. They have collaborated on books such as Diego  and Oil. He also has written many biographies about famous people eg. Sonia Sotomayor, Elvis Presley, Hillary Clinton, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, following the tradition of his mother.