Children's Picture Books: Biography Category

Becoming a Ballerina: The Story of Michaela Mabinty DePrince

In a Sierra Lione dust storm, ballet swooped into Michaela Mabinty DePrince’s life and never let her go. After her adoption brought her to the US, ballet continued to be the consoling hand that filled Michaela with a joy and hope that flowed from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. Over time, Michaela’s love for ballet only grew, and with it, her dream of becoming a ballerina. However, there were peers who told Michaela she didn’t belong in the ballet world, that her skin and vitiligo made her too different. However, ballet had stirred in Michaela a faith and determination that would help her turn her dreams into a reality. […]

Can You Imagine? The Art and Life of Yoko Ono

“Yoko Ono has been called many things: Bold. Confrontational. Controversial. Artist. Musician. Witch. But she has always been, first and foremost, Yoko: a girl who used her imagination to escape the horrors of World War II, and then a woman who used that same gift to find peace after an act of unfathomable violence. This is a story of a singular soul: an artist, musician, and writer who has always innovated beyond the limits of the accepted, whose brilliance cannot be overshadowed, and whose imagination has been truly revolutionary.” — publisher […]

I Am Connected

“We are all connected. Whether it is with your family, the mossy earth beneath your feet, the warm guidance of your ancestors, you belong in connection with all around you. Along the backdrop of Haida Gwaii’s breathtaking landscapes, Indigenous storyteller Ḵung Jaadee invites you to witness the many threads of relationship that connect us across time and space.” — publisher […]

I Love Salmon and Lampreys: A Native Story of Resilience

“Growing up in the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, Brook Thompson learned to care for the fish that nurtured her and her family. She knew that along the Klamath River in Northern California, salmon and lampreys are a needed part of life. But she also saw how these fish were in danger. People had built dams along the Klamath River, making it very hard for salmon and lampreys to live. Tribal people and their friends organized to have four of the dams removed, and they won.” — publisher […]

Maya Angelou Finds Her Voice

“Maya Angelou loves words. She whispers, “caterpillar green,” just to paint the color in her mind. Her tongue played with “pandemonium” to enjoy its rhythm. She sings the Negro national anthem and recites the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Words whirl and stories spin in Maya’s head and off her lips, helping her escape her troubled, segregated world and soothe her soul. Then, suddenly, eight-year-old Maya stops talking. She believes her words hurt somebody and now only deems them safe to share with her brother. Her family does what they can even as they get worried and frustrated, but it isn’t until years later that someone opens Maya back up. Mrs. Bertha Flowers, one of the most important citizens of Stamps, Arkansas, invites Maya to her home and talks to her about language and communication and reads to her from Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. Maya is transported by the power and singularity of Mrs. Flower’s voice…and finally moved to inspire the world with her own.” — publisher […]

The Girl Who Wore Pants

“Luisa was a brave girl from Puerto Rico who, ever since she was young, fought for what she believed was right and defended women’s rights. She lived in a time when women had to wear skirts, even though they were often uncomfortable and did not allow them to move freely. Luisa decided to change things, becoming one of the first women to wear pants in public!

Based on real events, celebrate the impact of Luisa Capetillo who was an activist and change-maker!” — publisher […]

Read More… from The Girl Who Wore Pants

Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China

“In her early years, Yinfan lives in the small Chinese county of Xintian, surrounded by family members. But when they move for her father’s new job to the city of Guangzhou, her life changes dramatically. Not only does Yinfan need to adjust to a new dialect, but she also has to comply with many new rules at home and in school, and deal with her loneliness. Yinfan yearns to make a good friend, and she does her best to try and fit in. That is, until a girl in her class helps her realize she likes herself just the way she is.” — publisher […]

A Song for August: The Inspiring Life of Playwright August Wilson

“August Wilson grew up open to the creative inspiration in everything he encountered: in library books, in music, in artworks, in the lively conversations overheard in the restaurants and barbershops lining the Pittsburgh neighborhood of his childhood. August paid attention. He listened. And when he got older, he got ideas about what to do with everything he’d seen and heard — ideas that would make him one of the greatest playwrights in American history.” — publisher […]

Abuela, Don’t Forget Me

” In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence a woman he could always count on—to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in. Throughout a coming of age marked by violence and dysfunction, Abuela’s red-brick house in Abilene, Texas, offered Rex the possibility of home, and Abuela herself the possibility for a better life.” — publisher […]

Read More… from Abuela, Don’t Forget Me

Bao’s Doll

“Whenever Mama says, “when I was a little girl in Taiwan, we had nothing,” Bao stops listening. Mama does not understand Bao, and Bao certainly does not understand Mama.

So when Bao desperately wants a doll—specifically, the beautiful, blonde All-American Artist Amanda doll that everyone else has—Bao takes matters into her own hands and steals Amanda from the store. After getting caught, Bao’s chest feels heavy like a giant rock. But gradually, the awkward silence between Bao and Mama shifts to honesty, and eventually, a deeper understanding of what binds them.

Inspired by the childhood of debut talent Bo Lu, this poignant picture book brings emotional layers to the story of a parent and child learning to connect with their heritage and each other.” — publisher […]