~What to read to your children today ~

Here is a brief list of newly recommended books that celebrate women and women’s issues for all ages.

Never too Young to Start: Books for Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers

My Feminist ABC by Irene Pizzolante A board book for infants and toddlers and older this little gem introduces some all important words and concepts such as F is for Feminism and G is for Girl Power and I is for Invent and T is for think and truth.

This Little Trailblazer:A Girl Power Primer by Joan Holub Another board book with a simple but important message. This one highlights 10 important women.

Books about great women for elementary readers

The Watcher: Joan Goodall’s Life with Chimps by Jeannette Winter. Winter is renowned for her simple, but meaningful, and always beautifully illustrated, biographies and non-fiction stories for elementary school readers. In addition to The Watcher, she has published books on Georgia O’Keefe My Name is Georgia, and the Librarian of Basra which is the story of Alia Muhhamad Baker’s attempt to save the books in the central library in Iraq.

The Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finley Mosca tells the story of Temple Grandin and how she became a powerful voice in science as a person with autism.

Caroline’s Comets: A True Story by Emily Arnold McCully. Caroline Herschel might have been scarred, stunted, and mistreated by her family, but she overcame her background to help her brother build the greatest telescope of their age, to become the first woman to be employed as a scientist, and to discover fourteen nebulae and a comet.

Voice of Her Own: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet by Katherine Laskey. This book for upper elementary students captures the life of a slave who became the first black woman to publish a book in America.

For middle school and up

Headstrong Women: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swaby. Fifty-two women who lived over the last three hundred years are honored in this book. The women are groups by the science/mat areas they excelled in and each given a two page biographical write up. A good book to start with as an overview. Then follow up by researching each woman more deeply.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. This book for middle graders tells the story made famous in the recent mob=vie of the four black women who served as human computers in early space science.

Phillis Wheatley: Complete Writings Read the words of America’s first published black woman in the original.

This is only a handful of the many marvelous books celebrating women’s accomplishments. Check out these great lists.

11 YA books to Stoke Teen Feminine Fire

50 Feminist Books

50 Crucial Feminist YA Novels

Books for Feminist Babies

How to Build a Feminist Bookshelf for Your Baby

TPN Books & Activities that address Gender Bias.

Also visit the blog: Women Words Wisdom for an overview of great writings by great women. What you find there might surprise you!