Time to Tell ‘Herstory’

March is Women’s History Month, and all month long, schools, community organizations, and cultural institutions are celebrating the diverse historical and societal accomplishments made by women across the U.S and around the world. Women’s History Month provides us with the opportunity to reflect upon both the barriers that have been broken by women over the years as well as the obstacles that have yet to fall.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, many City schools have organized events, activities, and lessons to highlight women’s experiences, perspectives, and contributions throughout history and today. To help support this valuable instruction, we put together the following list of books that families and educators can real aloud or assign to their students in grades 3-K through 12 through March and beyond. We hope students enjoy and learn from these outstanding titles—some of these texts are historical and non-fiction, while others are original works of fiction that feature female protagonists and/or feminist perspectives.

Have book recommendations you’d like to share? Please let us know in the comments section below!

Women’s History Month Booklist for Young Readers

Early Elementary School (Grades 3-K through 2)

• Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome, art by James Ransome

• The Flying Girl: How Aída de Acosta Learned to Soar by Margarita Engle, art by Sara Palacios

• Hand Over Hand by Alma Fullerton, art by Renné Benoit

• I Am Enough by Grace Byers, art by Keturah A. Bobo

• Lucía the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza, art by Alyssa Bermudez

• Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, art by Kerascoët

• Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed, art by Stasia Burrington

• Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

• Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge by Rachel Dougherty

• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating, art by Marta Álvarez Miguéns

Elementary School (Grades 3–5)

• Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan

• Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes

• Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers by Sarah Warren, art by Robert Casilla

• The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure by Caroline Paul, art by Wendy MacNaughton

• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

• Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar

• NeverMoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

• The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

• Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsy

Middle School (Grades 6–8)

• Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights by Mikki Kendall, art by A. D’Amico

• Because I Was a Girl: True Stories for Girls of All Ages by Melissa de la Cruz

• Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz & Renée Watson

• Escape from Aleppo by N.H. Senzai

• First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

• Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez

• Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote by Susan Zimet and Todd Hasak-Lowy

• Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden

• Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

• Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

High School (Grades 9–12)

• Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor

• Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy

• Color Me In by Natasha Diaz

• Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World by Kelly Jensen

• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

• Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janel Dewart Bell

• Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung

• Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

• The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

• We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

We hope you enjoy these titles and commemorate women’s history throughout March and beyond! For more Women’s History Month coverage, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to The Morning Bell below.

On behalf of the NYC Department of Education, we wish all of our families a wonderful Women’s History Month!

Banner photo by Katerina Holmes. Used under Creative Commons license. Original photo can be found on Pexels.