Home | Learning Tools | Language Arts Corner | Award-Winning Children's Books about Women's History

Award-Winning Children's Books About Women's History

These award-winning books about women's roles in history will delight you and your students. They were located using a reading database developed by Lisa Bartle, a reference librarian at California State University, San Bernardino. You can search on a number of parameters including reader age, story setting, historical period, ethnicity/nationality of protagonist, gender of protagonist, format of book, publication year, awards won, and more. Visit the Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature website to perform your own book searches.

Separate Battle : Women and the Civil War (1991), Chang, Ina. A history of the American Civil War with emphasis on women. ALAN 1992

Rosie the Riveter : Women Working on the Home Front in World War II (1995), Colman, Penny. A narrative of how women went to work during World War II. ALAN 1996 OPH 1996

Catherine Called Birdy (1994), Cushman, Karen. The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off. NH 1995

Seafaring Women (1982), De Pauw, Linda Grant. Discusses women at sea throughout history in both feminine and masculine roles, including those of pirate, warrior, whaler, trader, and the greatly expanding roles of recent times. ALAN 1983

Babe Didrikson Zaharias : The Making of a Champion (1999), Freedman, Russell. A biography of Babe Didrikson (1911-1956), who broke records in golf, track and field, and other sports, at a time when there were few opportunities for female athletes. ALAN 2000

You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? (1995), Fritz, Jean Illus. by: DiSalvo-Ryan, DyAnne. A biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902). ALAN 1996

Childtimes : A Three-Generation Memoir (1979), Greenfield, Eloise Ferguson Illus. by: Pinkney, Jerry. Childhood memoirs of three black women--grandmother, mother, and daughter-who grew up between the 1880's and the 1950's. BGHBH 1980

Seven Brave Women (1997), Hearne, Betsy Illus. by: Anderson, Bethanne. A girl recounts the brave exploits of her female ancestors, including her great-great-great grandmother who came to America in a wooden sailboat. Picture book. BGHBH 1998

Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind (1981), Lord, Athena V. Twelve-year-old Binnie, whose mother runs a company boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts, begins working in a textile mill and is caught up in the 1836 strike of women workers. JABA 1982

Winning Ways : A Photohistory of American Women in Sports (1996), Macy, Sue. A photo-history of American women in sports. ALAN 1997

Sojourner Truth : Ain't I a Woman ? (1992), McKissack, Patricia C. & Fredrick L A biography of Sojourner Truth (?-1883), the former slave who became well-known as an abolitionist and advocate of women's rights. ALAN 1993 BGHBA 1993 CSKH 1993

Invincible Louisa : The Story of the Author of Little Women (1933), Meigs, Cornelia, A biography of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), the author of Little Women. NM 1934

Let It Shine : Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters (2000), Pinkney, Andrea Davis Illus. by Alcorn, Stephen. Ten biographies of black women fighting for freedom, including Sojourner Truth, Biddy Mason, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Josephine Baker, Dorothy Irene Height, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Shirley Chisholm. CSKH 2001

Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride (1999), Ryan, Pam Munoz Illus. by Selznick, Brian. A fictionalized account of the night Amelia Earhart flew Eleanor Roosevelt over Washington, D.C. in an airplane. ALAN 2000

Visions : Stories About Women Artists (1993), Sills, Leslie. Presents the lives and works of four pioneering women artists: Mary Cassatt, Leonora Carrington, Betye Saar, and Mary Frank. ALAN 1994

Nine Spoons (1998), Stillerman, Marci Illus. by: Gerber, Pesach. Women in a concentration camp risk their lives to fashion a menorah out of spoons so that the children among them can observe Hanukkah. STA 1998

Go and Come Back (1998), Abelove, Joan. In this fictionalized account of a real study, Alicia, a young tribeswoman living in a Amazonian village in the Andes, tells about the two American women anthropologists who arrive to study the way of life of her people. ALAN 1999

Home | Learning Tools | Language Arts Corner | Award-Winning Children's Books about Women's History

©2001 Riverdeep Interactive Learning Limited. All rights reserved.