Make Reading “Herstorical” Throughout March

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 organizations 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.

Many of these books are readily available via New York’s public libraries, as well as through the Citywide Digital Library on Sora that’s open to City public school students—check them out at your convenience, and let us know what you think about these works!

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)

• Building Zaha: The Story of Architect Zaha Hadid by Victoria Tentler–Krylov

• The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter

• A Life Made By Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa by Andrea D’Aquino

• Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl

• Maya Lin: Artist–Architect of Light and Lines by Jeanne Walker Harvey; art by Dow Phumiruk

• Nana Akua Goes to School by Tricia Elam Walker; art by April Harrison

• Osnat and Her Dove: the True Story of the World’s First Female Rabbi by Sigal Samuel; art by Vali Mintzi

• Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo; art by Jacqueline Tourville

• Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone; art by Marjorie Priceman

• Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos; art by Jacqueline Alcántara

Elementary School (Grades 3–5)

• Anita and the Dragons by Hannah Carmona; art by Anna Cunha

• Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring by Nancy Churnin; art by Felicia Marshall

• Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of by Helaine Becker; art by Kari Rust

• Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade; art by Cozbi A. Cabrera

• Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’ Keeffe Painted What She Pleased by Amy Novesky; art by Yuyi Morales.

• A Girl Like Me by Angela Johnson

• Girl on a Motorcycle by Amy Novesky; art by Julie Morstad

• In Her Hands: The Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage by Alan Schroeder; art by JaeMe Bereal

• Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers by Juliet Menéndez

• Mamie on the Mound: A Woman in Baseball’s Negro Leagues by Leah Henderson; art by George Doutsiopoulos

• Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children by Jan Pinborough; art by Debby Atwell

Middle School (Grades 6–8)

• In the Country of Queens by Cari Best

• The Long Ride by Marina Budhos

• Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar

• Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

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

• Science Superstars: 30 Brilliant Women Who Changed the World by Jennifer Calvert; art by Octavia Jackson

• Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution by Avi

• We Are Artists: Women Who Made Their Mark on the World by Kari Herbert

• Who Was Frida Kahlo? by Sarah Fabiny; art by Jerry Hoare

• The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life by Amy Butler Greenfield

High School (Grades 9–12)

• Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi

• Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall by Heather Demetrios

• The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

• Feminist AF: A Guide to Crushing Girlhood by Brittney Cooper, Chanel Craft Tanner, and Susana Morris

• The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

• Idea Makers: 15 Fearless Female Entrepreneurs by Lowey Bundy Sichol

• Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

• Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero; art by Zeke Peña

• A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell

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.