By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

Few things are as fascinating to a child as realizing that the amazing “character” and “story” she just read are true — that these things really happened, and that the person who did them was real. Not only is it a great way for kids to learn about historical figures, both famous and obscure, but it’s tremendously inspiring to know that they, too, could grow up to change the world.

So what better way to celebrate Women’s History Month with your child than with some great picture book biographies? We’ve put together a list of great picture books about figures in women’s history, which we selected based on the high quality of their writing and illustrations. We’ve also included quite a few new releases: books that you may not have discovered yet, but are sure to become a cherished part of your picture book library.

Of course, great biographies are available for readers of all ages! You can always go to our biography section and then use the menu on the left to sort by age to find the perfect biography for your Mighty Girl.

Just Being Audrey, by Margaret Cardillo, illustrated by Julia Denos: She was a child in Nazi-occupied Europe, then a movie star and a fashion icon. But most importantly, she had a spirit of kindness and compassion that shone through everything she did. This biography of Audrey Hepburn explores how a little girl growing up through a war would become a beloved celebrity and humanitarian. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. We are all familiar with the names of these famous and remarkable women. But what of the lesser known queens of black history? If only we were all as familiar with names such as Claudette Colvin, Wilma Rudolph, Viola Desmond, Effa Manley, or Molly Williams.

February is well known as Black History Month in the United States and Canada. Schools, libraries, organizations, and individuals across the continent take time to honor black Americans and Canadians and their essential role in our nations’ stories throughout the second month of the year.

At A Mighty Girl, our take on this important celebration will be to focus on Black Herstory -- the too-often forgotten female half of black history -- by sharing the stories of both contemporary and historical tales of girls and women of African descent through our Facebook page and blog posts.

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This year, we've received a huge number of photo submissions for our Halloween album and we're awed by the creativity and variety of these Mighty Girls' amazing costumes. As we've always said, Mighty Girls know that their costume possibilities are limited only by their imaginations and, with costumes ranging from ones based on favorite superheroes to ones inspired by historic role models, these Mighty Girls clearly know no bounds!

In this post, we've showcased a small sample of these incredible costumes -- to browse the over 700 photos submitted, visit the 2013 A Mighty Girl Halloween Album. And, to help you and your Mighty Girl learn more about the wonderful characters and historic figures depicted, we've also linked to our character collection and biography section where relevant.

If you missed our earlier post highlighting creative Mighty Girl costumes from 2012, check out our blog post, A Mighty Girl Halloween: 50 Mighty Girls in Costume.

And, if you're seeking girl-empowering dress-up clothing or costumes anytime of year, visit our extensive costume collection with options for all ages from infants through adults in A Mighty Girl's Halloween Costume Guide. You can also find Mighty Girl stories for many of the upcoming holidays, including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas, in our Holidays & Celebrations collection.
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By Carolyn Danckaert, A Mighty Girl Founder

One of the great heroes of WWII led a secret operation to successfully smuggle 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, saving them from almost certain death, yet few people know the name of this largely unsung hero or have heard Irena Sendler's incredible story. Born in 1910, Sendler was a Polish Catholic nurse and social worker who began aiding Jews as early as 1939 after the Germans invaded Poland. At first, she helped to create false documents for over 3,000 Jewish families and later joined the Zegota, the underground Polish resistance organization created to aid the country's Jewish population.

In 1943, Sendler became head of Zegota's children's division and used her special access to the Warsaw Ghetto, granted to Social Welfare Department employees to conduct inspections for typhus, to set up a smuggling operation. She and her colleagues began secretly transporting babies and children out of the Ghetto by hiding them in an ambulance with a false bottom or in baskets, coffins, and even potato sacks. The children were then given false identities and placed with Polish families or in orphanages. To allow the children to be reunited with any surviving relatives following the war, Sendler buried lists containing the identities and locations of the children in jars. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

Amelia Earhart, the aviation pioneer, equal rights activist, and all around courageous heroine for generations of girls and women was born on this day in 1897. An icon of twentieth century bravery — but also that of mystery — Earhart is most well-known as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and to disappear during her attempted flight around the world.

As a child, Amelia Earhart had little to no interest in airplanes, but filled her days by exploring her neighborhood with her younger sister, reading voraciously, or following and collecting various critters found in her explorations. As a teen, Amelia kept a scrapbook filled with stories of women who were successful in careers dominated by men at the time.

After working as a nurse’s aide during World War I, Earhart went for her first ride in an airplane in 1920. It was that very flight — only ten minutes long, but that was all it took to change her life — that made Amelia Earhart say: “By the time I got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly.”

On January 3, 1921, Amelia Earhart started flying lessons, and six months later, she owned her very own airplane, nicknamed “The Canary”. It was with that plane that she set a world record for female pilots in 1922, being the first to reach an altitude of 14,000 feet. On May 15, 1923, she became the 16th woman to receive a pilot’s license from the Fédération Aèronatique Internationale.

In April of 1928, Earhart received a phone call asking her if she’d like to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. While she was a passenger and not the the pilot of this June 1928 flight, its news coverage helped to promote her to a level of celebrity, leading to her nicknames of “Lady Lindy” or the “Queen of the Air”. Continue reading → Continue reading

Today in Mighty Girl history, Anne Sullivan, famously known as the teacher and companion of Helen Keller for 49 years, was born today in 1866. The child of poor Irish immigrants, Sullivan herself went blind as a child due to untreated trachoma and was sent to the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. Though her vision was partially restored after surgery, she remained visually impaired throughout her life.

After Sullivan graduated as class valedictorian, the school director recommended the 20-year-old for a position teaching 6-year-old Helen Keller in the small town of Tuscumbia, Alabama. Keller, who had been left blind and deaf due to disease as a toddler, had very limited means of communication but her young teacher soon helped her break out of, as Keller later described, the "silence and darkness that surrounded me." Continue reading → Continue reading

Today in Mighty Girl history, champion of the New Deal and labor rights pioneer, Frances Perkins was born in 1880. Perkins was the first woman U.S. Cabinet member and served as U.S. Secretary of Labor throughout President Franklin D. Roosevelt's long presidency.

As one of the most trailblazing women in the history of the U.S. government, Perkins is largely responsible for many of the New Deal reforms including the creation of child labor laws, social security, unemployment insurance, and the federal minimum wage.

After attending Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University, Perkins became head of the New York Consumers League in 1910 and sought better working conditions and hours during a time when labor rights and factory safety standards were nearly nonexistent. The following year, she personally witnessed the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which 146 garment workers, most of them young girls and women, perished; many of whom jumped to their deaths out of windows because the doors and stairwells of the factory were locked. Continue reading → Continue reading

by Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

Today we continue our Mighty Girl Creators Series with our latest installment: an interview with esteemed author and illustrator Jeanette Winter. Ms. Winter is the creator of numerous highly regarded picture books, many of which feature the true stories of amazing women.

Ms. Winter loves writing about artists, since her own desire to be one growing up has resulted in a fascination with the artistic process, though she also writes about any story that captures her interest. Her latest book, due for release in the summer of 2013, is Henri’s Scissors, the story of Henri Matisse’s work in his later life.

On A Mighty Girl’s website, we feature several of Winter’s books, including the picture book biographies My Name Is Georgia, about artist Georgia O’Keeffe; The Watcher: Jane Goodall’s Life with the Chimps; and Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa about Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. Her book The Librarian of Basra: A True Story From Iraq tells the amazing story of Alia Muhammad Baker’s rescue of the books during the invasion of Iraq. And Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan is a testament to the power that reading and books can have to heal even the deepest wounds.

Winter lives in New York City with her husband, painter Roger Winter. You can read more about Winter’s life and writing at her Macmillan author page or her Simon and Schuster author page. Continue reading → Continue reading

By Jennifer de Beer, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

We are pleased to continue our new blog series, A Mighty Girl Creators, with our latest installment: a conversation with author Doreen Rappaport. An award-winning creator of nearly forty books for children and young adults, Ms. Rappaport often shares the true stories of remarkable individuals from over the course of history. In particular, she likes to feature those figures whom she calls “not-yet-celebrated.” She is an especially appropriate subject for Women’s History Month, as her writing so often celebrates the lives and contributions of women while making their stories accessible to young readers.

On A Mighty Girl’s website, you will find multiple books from Ms. Rappaport’s pen, and the selections cover a wide range of non-fiction territory. There are picture books presenting engaging biographies of Eleanor Roosevelt and Helen Keller, and a gripping tale of female baseball legends. Older children will be invited to read stories of danger and bravery in Escape from Slavery: Five Journeys to Freedom, a collection of five true tales, four of which focus on girls or women. A young adult audience will discover fascinating historic content within the covers of The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Ša and American Women: Their Lives in Their Words, two publications that heavily feature primary source material. Continue reading → Continue reading