27 Best Books for Women’s History Month for Kids
Best Books for Women’s History Month. March is Women’s History Month. To celebrate, here are 27 inspiring books perfect for reading with your children. This curated list stands out as all the books have been carefully selected. No feminist tones. Dive into these wholesome picture books that are free from any hidden agendas.
This booklist is a collaboration with my friend, Allison over at @faithfullittlefarmhouse. Allison, a Christ-centered mama of five, curated this Women’s History Month Booklist for kids with a biblical worldview. Not only is she a wonderful resource for Christ-centered and Home-focused content, she is also the author of Honor Looks Within, a short chapter book that nurtures a deep appreciation for strong values in children, shaping them for a lifetime.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you on qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate.
27 Best Books for Women’s History Month for Kids
1. Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizebeth Friedman Changed the Course of Two World Wars by Laurie Wallmark
Elizebeth Friedman was one of the first and very few people in the United States who studied coded languages and developed a deciphering curriculum to teach the military. Friedman desired to stop working and move out of the city, and start a family. But the rarity of her skillset was so great that she had to go to work full time. It is quite possible that without her incredible skillset, the war and many, many lives would have been lost. It wasn’t until 2015 that her life’s work was declassified. Friedman was sworn to secrecy, even from her husband and children about the work and secret messages she decoded. The government took credit when the credit belonged to her, yet she remained humble and content to fight quietly for her country.
2. Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators by Claudia Friddell
This is a great book and a fun treat to read. The illustrations are very bright and bold. Such a crucial and busy role they had, transmitting messages and connecting calls. These ladies got moved to the front lines because the men doing the same job weren’t as fast or efficient.
3. Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark
This is a lovely book about Ada, who is considered to be the first-ever computer programmer. Ada is a fun person to know about, especially in today’s technological world, because she has a computer program language named after her and the 2nd Tuesday in October is known as Ada Lovelace Day, encouraging girls in the world of math and computer knowledge.
Content Warning: The book tells of Ada’s mother leaving her very promiscuous father and that Ada only knew him through his books. He was a very troubled man.
4. Cloaked in Courage: Uncovering Deborah Sampson, Patriot Solider by Beth Anderson
This is such an interesting story about a woman who disguises herself as a man because she wants to fight for her country. Deborah endured a hard upbringing and poor living conditions. She lived with all boys and heard their talks of the war. This energized her and made her want to fight. Deborah was the first woman to pull off fighting in the war. She fought until she got very sick and the doctor discovered her. Her service was so great that it was decided she would not get in trouble and got honorably discharged.
5. Revolutionary Prudence Wright: Leading the Minute Women in the Fight for Independence by Beth Anderson
Fiesty Prudence! Prudence led the ladies of her town in rebellion against the unfair taxes of the King. It was hard work, tons of extra work, but she fought for what she believed in and they boycotted the King’s goods and made their own. When it was said that trouble was coming to their town, these feisty women didn’t hunker down in fear when their minutemen husbands were gone, they decided to do something about it. Hiding at night at a certain bridge, she knew messengers could pass by unnoticed, the women caught a spy and intercepted important papers. The Revolutionary women were no joke and thanks to a lot of women who did a lot of things here and there, it was those little things that added up to help win the war for our independence.
6. They Called Her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell
This lady had some guts. Following her husband to war, Molly carried pitchers of water to the soldiers on the battlefield to help keep them from dying from heatstroke. That’s how she got the name Molly Pitcher. The men would cry,” Molly, pitcher!” to ask for water. When she saw her husband wounded, which prevented him from firing a cannon, she rushed over and started blasting away.
Content warning: “The only fault her employers ever found with her was that she swore like a soldier.” It’s nice to be prepared to talk about what that means or read through it first so you know to skip that sentence for younger kids.
7. Rebel With A Cause: The Daring Adventure of Dicey Langston, A Girl Spy of the American Revolution by Kathleen V. Kudlinski
This is a story about Dicey Langston who made and collected supplies in secret for the army and who raced to camp in the middle of the night to warn them that Bloody Bill was coming. She even cooked them breakfast before she sent them on their way.
Content Warning: This book is best for older elementary to middle school-aged readers. Several times throughout, it shows and talks about guns being pointed at Dicey and about Bloody Bill, who loved gruesome violence.
8. Sybil’s Night Ride by Karen B. Winnick
This is a story about Sybil’s heroic ride to alert men throughout the countryside to assemble and be ready to meet the redcoats who were coming.
9. Daughter of Liberty: A True Story of the American Revolution by Robert Quackenbush
This is a story about Wyn Mabie, who ran into George Washington, almost literally, and ended up volunteering to do a mission for him to recover hidden papers that he needed in a building that had been taken over by the British.
Content Warning: The author explains that Wyn saw half-naked soldiers, bleeding, and ones near death who were marching and captured by the British.
10. Her Name was Mary Katharine: The Only Women Whose Name is on the Declaration of Independence by Ella Schwartz
This biography picture book tells the story of how Mary Katharine’s mother taught her how to read and write. Mary helped run her brother’s print businesses, following him everywhere he started a new paper. Mary Katharine’s family was a family of patriots. Early in her printing job, she only used her initials for the things she printed, but she made her bold and brave debut printing her full name when she printed the Declaration, knowing full well how dangerous that was as it was treason to the British.
11. Anna Strong: A Spy During the American Revolution by Sarah Glenn Marsh
This book tells of the mysterious Anna Strong. No one knows for sure if she was part of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, but tons of evidence leads to her being recognized as a female member. It’s believed that men did such a good job protecting her identity that we are left with putting together clues to determine if it was her. Anna multitasked, she did laundry and gave out coded messages at the same time. She remained strong and kept doing her work diligently even when her husband was arrested for spying. This book is super fun. In the back of the book, it teaches about the Culper Spy Code and how to write with invisible ink like they did.
12. Patience Wright: America’s First Sculptor and Revolution Spy by Pegi Deitz Shea
Quirky Patience Wright grew up a Quaker and was educated by her mother to read and write. As a child, she was talented in forming things out of clay, such as animals. She didn’t marry until she was older, but after her husband died, she moved her family to Philadelphia to start a business with her sister. While she still believed in God, she left the Quaker faith. Leaving the Quaker faith allowed her to work with animal substances and start sculpting wax instead of clay. She and her sister became quite a hit and their popularity soared sculpting the rich and famous.
After a fire that burned down their studio, Patience jumped at the chance to explore and live abroad. The fire made her even more famous. She was invited to sculpt royalty, and both her popularity and living in England gave her incredible opportunities to get to know important people and things. Somehow, she became a spy for America. She would send her secret messages to her sister hidden inside wax heads that she sculpted.
As things went on, people suspected Patience to be a spy, or at least they knew she was loyal to America, and her popularity diminished with the Londoners. She worked in France, and when the war ended, George Washington himself wrote Patience and asked if she would do a sculpture of him. Sadly, she never made it back to America, and though she wanted to be buried in America, she was buried on British soil.
13. The Bug Girl: Maria Merian’s Scientific Vision by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Maria Merian was among the very first entomologists and a female one at that. She also was a self-published author and illustrator. “The Bug Girl” is a fun story about her life with an emphasis on her being a young girl getting started with her curiosity in all things creepy and crawly.
Content Warning: There are multiple references to describing something as “like magic.” Also, the book tells about how careful she had to be studying inspects because people of her time believed in spontaneous generation, which was evil, and if she was found doing things with those creatures, she could have been accused as a witch.
This is a wonderful way to talk about how we should explore and learn from God’s creation and marvel at his handiwork. If Maria and others like her hadn’t been brave, people would still believe in spontaneous generation and not know about metamorphosis and all the spiritual correlations we can glean from these amazing creatures.
14. The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science by Joyce Sidman
This illustrated book is a deeper look into Maria Merian’s life and is one teenagers and adults would enjoy.
Content Warning: Please note the author talks about her separation from her husband, her religion, and things such as visiting another country where the Indians told her about the seed they use to abort their children so they won’t become slaves to the Dutch.
15. Out of School and Into Nature: The Anna Comstock Story by Suzanne Slade
Anna Comstock used her interests to teach others and get teachers to take their children outside to learn. There was a food shortage and there were fewer farmers. State officials asked Anna to figure this out. She concluded that kids weren’t learning about nature. There were no science classes. Anna decided to appeal to teachers and get them to take classes outdoors and into nature. Soon, teachers agreed which lead to more kids being interested in the outside world. Anna Comstock later became the first female professor at Cornell.
Content warning: Anna carved details into wood so amazingly that they looked real, the author referred to this being like magic.
16. Beatrix Potter Scientist by Lindsay H. Metcalf
This biography picture book explores her life before she became a self-published author and her particular fascination with fungi. Beatrix Potter studied how to grow fungi. She wrote a paper and sadly it was never published and is quite a mystery because no one knows what became of it. Perhaps she got discouraged and got rid of it. Due to not advancing in her scientific research, she took the advice of a friend and wrote books from letters she had written to a sick friend. This was a giant success.
This was the success that led her to be able to procure her second love, the countryside. Farms were quickly being sold, and the land was being developed, with the city expanding its reach. Beatrix decided to do something about it. With her wealth from the books, Beatrix bought a large amount of countryside to protect it from being lost, and her land is still protected today!
17. Saving the Countryside: The Story of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit by Linda Marshall
This beautiful book is a delightful story about how Beatrix Potter did amazing things for farmers and people who were less wealthy than her.
18. Sisters in Science: Marie Curie, Bronia Dluska, and the Atomic Power of Sisterhood by Linda Elovitz Marshall
Marie and her sister Bronia loved to study and were part of secret schools that were held for women inside people’s homes. The sisters came up with a plan to get higher education and how to pay for it. Bronia went to study to become a doctor first so she could pay for Marie’s turn.
Marie then became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize from her studies, and not only that, she won two! After her husband died, she took over his classes and became the first female teacher at Sorbonne, the university where she studied and met her husband. Marie invented the portable X-ray and opened a radium institute in her hometown that Bronia was in charge of to research cancer and medical treatment.
The story opens and closes with the sisters being with each other and supporting one another in their stories.
19. Nothing Stopped Sophie: the Story of the Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe
Imagine if you lived in a time when your daughter wanted to learn math and to punish her, you took away her warm clothes and candles and stopped making a fire for her at night so she would stay in bed to keep warm instead of trying to study! That’s what happened to Sophie.
This is a story about being determined to do something you are interested in and not giving up. In a time when things were against her, she was determined to figure out the math behind vibrations. She was the only person to enter a competition from the Royal Academy of Sciences and a woman at that. Even though it took her two times to submit her research, the men finally agreed, and she won!
20. Louisa May’s Battle: How the Civil War Led to Little Women by Kathleen Krull
This is a wonderful way to learn about the life of Louisa May Alcott. She is a great role model in dedication, hard work, viewing everyone equally as God made them, loyalty to family, and perseverance through trials. She lived a hard life, but she didn’t let that stop her and made the best of things.
21. Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott by Yona Zeldis McDonough
22. Fearless Flyer: Ruth Law and Her Flying Machine by Heather Lane
Amelia Earhart, everyone has heard of her. Ruth Law, on the other hand, is a little less well-known. A true aviator, and a lady at that. Ruth was determined to break a nonstop cross-country flight from Chicago to New York. The problem, no one would let her fly a more sophisticated aircraft because they didn’t think a woman could handle it. So what did she do? She decided that she would modify her biplane, that’s right, the very same one that Wright Brothers designed, and made the trip. This was very dangerous. A lot of people died flying biplanes due to subjection of weather and requirement of hands on the controls 100% of the time.
On her first day of flight lessons, Ruth witnessed America’s first licensed female pilot fall from her plane and die. That did not stop her from wanting to fly. She became a master plane mechanic, knowing every single piece of her plane. Ruth even made and whittled parts for it. She was a stunt plane flyer and did acrobatics for shows, but she wanted to do something more.
So she set off modifying her plane and made her rotating map box to make the long cross-country trip. She even showed up in a skirt. What a lady!
Sadly, she did not finish the flight non-stop, but she set a new record for the longest non-stop flight, and in a flying machine at that, which was an incredible task in and of itself.
23. Ruth Law Thrills a Nation by Don Brown
This story is a Reading Rainbow Book. Watch the episode on YouTube HERE.
24. Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen by Deborah Hopkinson
This biography picture book is filled with super sweet illustrations and facts about Jane Austen’s life, such as she only had one sister and six brothers! There were even more boys who lived with her, attending her father’s boarding school. That probably gave her loads to write about.
She spent her days reading books in her father’s library and educating herself. She became very well-read, so much so that she is among the most famous female authors the world has known. The book tells about how her life is very similar to the things that she wrote about in her novels. In the back of the book, it includes a neat timeline of her life along with her novels and famous quotes from them.
25. Laura Ingalls Wilder by Alexandra Wallner
Any Little House fans would be very happy to have both biography picture books about Laura Ingalls Wilder. We are so fortunate that she wrote down her life in a historical way. Can you imagine living in a time when you traveled by wagon, had to build your cabin from scratch, but lived to see the day when there were personal cars? That’s crazy!
26. Pioneer Girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson
This biography picture book about Laura Ingalls Wilder goes into specific detail with realistic illustrations.
27. Annie and Helen by Deborah Hopkinson
Helen’s sickness left her in the dark amidst insane frustration, terror, despair, and loneliness. Being ripped away from her family, being stuck with someone she didn’t know, having everything she was used to change, and not understanding why. Annie had a hard life with difficult circumstances, which helped prepare her to be the one to teach Helen. Without Annie, Helen would have lived such a miserable life.
This book is so sweet with pretty illustrations, and it has excerpts from Annie’s letters that she wrote about Helen. Real-life pictures are included, too. So many lessons can be gained from learning about these two women.
Interested in More Booklists for Kids: Check These Out!
Favorite Spring Read Alouds for Kids: A Picture Book Collection
Get the complete springtime booklist HERE.
Best Garden Books for Kids: A Picture Book Collection
Get the complete booklist HERE.
Best Books About Perseverance: A Picture Book Collection
Get the complete list of favorite picture books about Perseverance HERE.
More Booklists Coming Soon!
Thanks for Stopping By!
Lastly, thank you for stopping by! Please say Hi in the comment section and share your favorite book on the Best Books For Women’s History Month Booklist. Did I miss your favorite? I am so honored to collaborate with Allison on this fun booklist to celebrate Women. If you enjoyed this booklist, be sure to subscribe to my mailing list for monthly picture booklists delivered right to your inbox.
HAPPY READING!
– With Great Joy, Katie
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