A Mighty Girl's favorite books about the special love between mothers and daughters in honor of Mother's Day!

On Sunday, May 8, people in over 80 countries around the world will celebrate Mother’s Day — a day dedicated to celebrating mothers and the contributions they make to their families and to their broader communities. For many Mighty Girls, their relationship with their mothers is a very special one, since Mom is their model for just how mighty girls and women can be. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's Father's Day tribute showcases our favorite books celebrating the special father-daughter bond.

A father is a special presence in a girl’s life: he supports, encourages, and loves his daughter, even as he models to her what a man can be. Father’s Day provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate this unique and important relationship in the lives of many Mighty Girls. Whether they’re dancing with their babies, walking in the dark and snow with their little girls, or teaching their tweens and teens to be self-sufficient, the fathers in these books know a thing or two about raising Mighty Girls! Continue reading → Continue reading

Buffy Sainte-Marie on Sesame Street

When I was a little girl I was taught that there were no Indians. The only time I ever saw Indians was when we visited the stupid natural history museum and they were dead and stuffed like the dinosaurs.... [When Sesame Street] called me up and said that they wanted me to recite the alphabet like everybody else does, and count from one to ten....I said that I wasn’t interested in doing that, but I asked if they had ever done any Native American programming.... I was doing essentially the same thing that I was doing all along, in trying to raise consciousness and spotlight Native America, because it’s fascinating and interesting.” — Buffy Saint-Marie, Canadian-American Cree songwriter, educator, and social activist, in an interview with Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict, June 2009

Since Buffy Sainte-Marie’s episodes of Sesame Street aired in 1975, representation of Native American and Indigenous Peoples in media has significantly improved, especially in recent years. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, which tracks representation in children's books, found that while only 0.6% of children's book featured Native American or Indigenous characters in 2012, that number increased to over 2% in 2022, a percentage akin to the current day Native American population in the United States.

Fortunately, among these titles, there are numerous great books available featuring Native American and Indigenous Canadian Mighty Girls! November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, during which time we recognize the contributions and cultures of the Indigenous Peoples of North America.

To celebrate this heritage month, we’ve put together a selection of wonderful books starring Native American and Indigenous characters to share with your children. Whether reading a great piece of historical fiction, a fascinating biography, or a story that features modern Native American girls in their day-to-day lives, they’ll love these stories. And who knows? You might just learn a thing or two yourself! Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of girl-empowering bilingual board and picture books in English and Spanish.

From the moment they're born, kids are like sponges for language, and many parents decide to take advantage of that natural ability by introducing more than one language early. Whether you speak multiple languages at home or want to teach your child a second language, bilingual books are a fun way to introduce kids to new vocabulary and develop fluency! And in the United States, where millions of people speak Spanish as a first or second language, there's a huge demand for high-quality books that incorporate both English and Spanish text. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top books for children and teens about the refugee experience.

With heart-wrenching photos and videos of mothers and children fleeing Ukraine filling television and computer screens, many children will be understandably curious and concerned about what is happening and what it means to be a refugee. As millions of people have been forced to leave Ukraine following the Russian invasion — sparking the fastest and largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II — it's more important than ever to talk to kids about refugees and the importance of the world opening its arms to help those in need. Continue reading → Continue reading

Twenty books that explore poverty and hardship in local communities -- and cultivate kids' desire to lend a helping hand to those in need.

For many kids, poverty and hunger are things from long ago or far away, but the truth is that financial hardship exists in our own communities as well: behind closed doors, many families struggle to provide the necessities. Divisions due to class differences can appear any time — after all, when a new “must-have” toy or clothing brand becomes popular, there are always classmates at school who can’t have it. And yet, talking to kids about poverty and class is difficult for many adults because the issues behind these problems seem too complicated or uncomfortable to explain. Continue reading → Continue reading

Our favorite books about Mighty Girls and their hair that encourage a healthy body image and celebrate the diversity of girls' hair!

Long or short, straight or curly, in ponytails or a ballerina bun — there are so many wonderful ways Mighty Girls wear their hair! But hair can also be the source of body image insecurity for many girls as they wonder if their hair is too thick or too flat, the wrong color or the wrong texture. And, of course, even if she loves her hair, there’s always the battle when it comes time to pull out the brush and comb.

In this blog post, we're showcasing stories for young readers about Mighty Girls and their hair. Whether they're celebrating their unique hair, wrestling to keep it under control, or donating it to a worthy cause, these Mighty Girls love their hair — even if they find it a little challenging at times. They also come to recognize that, in the end, it's not the hair that matters: it's the head underneath!

For more Mighty Girl books that explore body image issues, you can find recommendations for both children and teens in our blog post, Celebrating Every Body: 25 Body Image Positive Books for Mighty Girls. Continue reading → Continue reading

Our top picks of girl-empowering wordless picture books that will send kids' imaginations soaring!

Storytime is a popular ritual for many children — but what if the story has no words? Wordless picture books provide a unique storytelling experience, one that’s more interactive than a regular picture book: instead of just listening to you read, you and your child get to explore the action on the page and tell the story yourselves! A good wordless book, full of evocative illustrations with vivid details, encourages creativity and fosters plenty of discussion, either one on one or in a class group.

If you’re interested in incorporating wordless picture books into your library, we've showcased our favorites girl-empowering titles in this post. These intriguing, funny, and touching books will intrigue readers young and old alike!

For many more picture books starring Mighty Girls — with and without words — visit our Picture Book Collection.

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A Mighty Girl's top picks of the best new biographies for children and teens about incredible women from around the world.

If you flip through a typical history book, you might think, as historian Gerda Lerner once wrote, that "ostensibly one-half the human race is doing everything significant and the other half doesn’t exist." Far too often, women's contributions have been neglected in history books and school curriculums — fortunately, there are growing numbers of wonderful books being published for young readers about girls and women who made their mark on history. And, there's no better time to share these stories and make sure that the next generation — girls and boys alike — appreciates the important and diverse roles that women have played in history than during Women's History Month!

With that in mind, in this blog post, we've collected the best biographies on remarkable women that have been published in the past 12 months, since the last Women's History Month. These books for children and teens feature girls and women who excelled in science, politics, the arts, athletics, and other fields. And, they serve as an excellent reminder that women's stories deserve to be told, not just during Women's History Month, but all year long.

For more books of inspiring girls and women from around the world, check out the hundreds of biographies and works of historical fiction in A Mighty Girl's History & Biography Collection. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's Reading Series kicks off with 40 of our favorite girl-empowering picture books for young children.

With the school year done, plenty of parents are looking for reading material to keep their kids turning pages! Looking for high quality, high interest books during the summer months is a great way to build literacy skills and foster a lifelong love of reading, which makes this a great time to fill kids' shelves with girl-empowering titles starring smart, confident, and courageous girls and women!

To kick off the start of A Mighty Girl's Reading Series, this blog post features 40 favorite picture books that share fun and thoughtful stories about both fictional and real-life Mighty Girls. Our 5-part series will continue with basic chapter books for early readers to more complex titles for tweens and teens to a selection of recommended reads for adults. All of these selections will show readers, both young and old, the power and potential of girls and women — and inspire her on her own journey as a Mighty Girl! Continue reading → Continue reading