It will soon be
International Women's Day and unlike when I first started teaching, when there were very few picture books that I could read to the girls to empower them to move beyond their immediate family and school community, now there is a myriad of wonderful examples. There are biographies about many very successful women who broke away from the low expectations that parents and society had for them and so now I can really enjoy sharing books about inspiring women, be they scientists, activists, artists, musicians, inventors or authors.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
- John Quincy Adams -
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Here are 25 women depicted in picture book biographies from my library. I have used them for a display in the library this week. What inspiring, incredible and creative women! Hopefully many students and parents will feel inclined to share at least one story this week.
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Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark. Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron but she developed her creativity through maths and science. Working with Charles Babbage who invented the first mechanical computer, Ada wrote the first computer program for the machine.
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Brave Girl by Michelle Markel tells the story of Clara Lemlich who was young Ukranian immigrant. She led the largest strike of women workers in U.S. history because she believed that girls should not be treated badly and paid little for their labour.
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Coco Chanel by Ana Albero is part of a new series called Little People Big Dreams and tells the story of designer Coco from her time in an orphanage right through to her success as a designer. see also
Coco and the Little Black Dress and
Different Like Coco.
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Daredevil Betty by Meghan McCarthy tells the story of Betty Skelton, who was a young girl in the 1930s when girls were not encouraged to take an interest in aviation or motor racing. Betty loved watching planes and cars and lived for adventure.
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Dare the Wind by Tracey E. Fern tells the story of Ellen Prentiss who accompanied and navigated for her clipper-sailing husband on a record-breaking journey from New York to San Francisco.
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Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle tells a story based on the life of a Chinese-African-Cuban girl, Millo Castro Zaldarriaga who broke Cuba's taboo against female drummers.
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Florence Nightingale by Demi tells how Florence stood up to her wealthy family to become a pioneer in the world of nursing and medicine as we know it.
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For the Right to Learn by Rebecca Lanston-George tells about the life of Malala Yousafzai who fought for the right to an education. Students will find Malala life very inspiring because she is still alive and her story happened in their lifetime. There are other biographies about Malala too. See Jeanette Winter's
Malala: a Brave Girl from Pakistan and
Malala Yousafzai by Karen Leggett Abouraya.
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The House that Jane Built by Tanya Lee Stone tells the story of Jane Addams who transformed a poor neighbourhood in Chicago by opening her house as a community centre, thus becoming the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Imogen: the Mother of Modernism and Three Boys by Amy Novesky tells the story of Imogen Cunningham one of the finest photographers of the 20th century. She was inspirational too because she was the epitome of the working mother juggling two roles.
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Life in the Ocean by Claire A Nivola tells the story of world-famous oceanographer Sylvia Earle who is known both for exploration and advocacy.
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Look Up! by Robert Burleigh tells the story of Henrietta Swan Levant who was a pioneer astronomer. She changed the course of astronomy when she was just 25 years old while working a the Harvard College Observatory.
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Luna and Me by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw tells the story of Julia Butterfly Hill and Luna, a redwood tree that she lived in for two years until she was sure of its survival.
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Maria's Comet by Deborah Hopkinson tells how Maria Mitchell longed to be an astronomer after looking through her father's telescope and does become America's first female astronomer.
• Marvellous Mattie by Emily Arnold McCully tells the story of Margaret E. Knight who became a prolific inventor after a childhood spent with a sketchbook and tool box.
• Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey tells the story of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. My girls love this book probably because they take swimming for granted.
• Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough. Long ago children couldn't borrow from libraries and then Anne Carroll Moore changed that when she created the children's room at the New York Public Library.
• Mrs Harkness and the Panda by Alicia Potter tells the story of Ruth Harkness who inherited an expedition from her husband, a trek in China to find a panda and bring it home to America.
• My Name is Gabriela byMonica Brown is a bilingual biography about Chilean poet and teacher Gabriela Mistral who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Rachel by Amy Ehrlich tells of Rachel Carson's love for the outdoors, her curiosity and her work that started environmentalism. See also
Rachel Carson and Her Book that Changed the World.
• Stone Girl Bone Girl by Laurence Anhalt tells the story of Mary Fanning who as a ten year old child found a fossilised sea monster which was a major prehistoric discovery at the time. See also
The Fossil Girl by Catherine Brighton
and
Mary Anning by Kay Barnham.
• The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins tells the story of Kate Sessions who helped turn San Diego from a dry dessert town to a leafy city of parks and gardens.
• The Watcher by Jeanette Winter and
Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell tell the story of Jane Goodall and how she came to be with the chimpanzees and thus a renowned conservationist and environmentalist.
• Wangari Maathai by Aurelia Fronty is the newest picture book biography about this remarkable woman who planted trees in Africa and won the Nobel Prize. There are many others such as
Seeds of Change; Mama Miti; Wangari's Trees of Peace and
Planting the Trees of Kenya.
• Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors by Tanya Lee Stone is the story of Elizabeth Blackwell who refused to be told women could not be doctors. She persevered under extreme pressures and graduated as a doctor and practised medicine.
Of course this list is not exhaustive. I have not included any writers, artists, musicians, ballerinas, no Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Vera Wang, Marie Curie, Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan, Sonia Sotomayor...the list could go on and on.
I am always happy to add a new birthday celebration to the library calendar. Thank you Eric from Happy Birthday Author. I can now add Ame Dyckman. We have three of her books and each of them is very special in its own way and nothing like each other. Each has a different illustrator which makes them appear very different too. If you don't know them borrow them and enjoy what the very best picture books have to offer.
This week I'm continuing to look at picture books that empower girls to see themselves as very capable. The Seven Chinese Sisters by Kathy Tucker and Grace Lin is a favourite from my library. While this is an update or innovation on the Chinese folktale, The Seven Chinese Brothers that Margaret Mahy retells so eloquently, it is welcome, as it gives girls the chance to shine, solve problems, be proactive and to have the special powers. Each of the sisters has a special talent that they use cooperatively to thwart a dragon which has snatched baby Seventh Sister.
Happy International Women's Day. I have had big success with the staff, parents and students today. So many of the books in my 'Inspiring Women' Display were loaned and one of the kindergarten teachers read I'm a Girl by Yasmeen Ismail to her class.
• Wangari Maathai by Aurelia Fronty is the newest picture book biography about this remarkable woman who planted trees in Africa and won the Nobel Prize. There are many others such as Seeds of Change; Mama Miti; Wangari's Trees of Peace and Planting the Trees of Kenya.
