I learned from my son's teacher the other day that March is Women's History month. Together we began to recall with we'd adored female biographies. She was an even more pronounced addict than I, reading through the adult sections because there weren't enough female biographies to fuel her in the children's section. Ever since we talked, I have been speaking with other women who shared the same literary appetites when young. I think that many women's drives to empowerment may have been nurtured by reading biographies of powerful women. The numbers of women's lives entering the pages of children's books have grown since I was young; they've grown in number, they've grown in multiethnic representation, they grown in styles and formats and they've grown in quality.
There was only one picture book biography of a woman that I remember as a child, Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire's Pocahontas. When I opened its pages recently, I was immediately transported back to my earlier reading of the tale of the "Indian princess" who was courageous, daring, and vibrantly alive. Even though the illustrations whirled me back through years, the drawings are not the only strength of this book. The detailed descriptions, dramatic telling and very real characters still re-create the vibrancy of Pocahantas for children of the 90's. Ages 4-8. (Doubleday, 1946)
There are excellent new single-titled women's picture book biographies. Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth of England by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema describes a woman who was empowered far more than any other woman of her time. And yet, she did not abuse her power for she was wise, tolerant (certainly more so than her father Henry VIII!), culturally sophisticated, and adored by all her people. All her life she fought the fact that she was "only a woman" and yet she saw her people through troubled times and created an era of peace and security that came to be named for her. This was a very politically-complicated age and the authors do a remarkable job of making it understandable for children without losing the finer points that show Queen Bess's humanity. Stanley's illustrations for this book are a perfect match for the Queen's life. They are formal and yet reveal the life forces of her life and her times. Ages 5-10. (Macmillan, 1990)
Josephine Baker's life is retold in Ragtime Tumpie by Ragtime Tumpie, written by Alan Schroeder and illustrated by Bernie Fuchs. This picture book gives a sense of Josephine Baker as a child, as well as the times she grew in and the excitement of Ragtime music. Illustration and text work together to animate era and woman. Ages 5-8. (Little Brown, 1989)
Several companies have published series of biographies in picture book formats that make profiles of women accessible to young children. Childrens Press Rookie Biographies Series are written in a short chapter format similar to an I-Can-Read. The few words per page are broadened by color and black and white illustrations. Pocahontas is one of the women featured in this series. Ages 5-8.
Children's Press has a Picture-Story Biography Series for a slightly older reader. Both words and ideas are a bit more complicated, but are still supplemented with photographs. Among the women covered by this series are Leontyne Price, Sandra Day O'Connor, Indira Gandhi, and Sally Ride. Ages 6-9.
Crowell Biographies have won runner-up awards for the Coretta Scott King award. Written by well-known author Eloise Greenfield, the series also boasts well-known illustrators like Jerry Pinkney. Women in this series include Rosa Parks and Mary McLeod Bethune. Ages 6-9.
Watts' Lifetime series is filled with photographs, quotations, maps, historical background insets, and quickly paced narrative that show the effect of notable men and women on the world. Women portrayed in these thirty-two page include Mother Teresa, Ann Frank and Helen Keller. Ages 7-10.
Viking has created a whole series of women's biographies called Women of Our Time. Written for the seven to 11 year old reader, there are currently sixteen well-written, easy to read biographies about twentieth century women representing a diversity of fields and endeavors. ranging from Mary Bethune to Margaret Mead.
Many courageous women of our history are not to be found in history books, they maybe less well-known, but this has nothing to do with their worth. Peter and Connie Roop write about the life of Abbie Burgess in Keep the Light's Burning, Abbie. Abbie's father is a light-house keeper, when he leaves for supplies, he puts young Abbie in charge of keeping the light burning while the younger children care for their sick mother. A four week storm prevents his return and it is Abbie's constancy that saves her father's life and the lives of other sailors. This book acts as a window to the past presenting a way of life as well as a woman little-known to many children . Best of all, the author's format the story as a simple, readable I-Can-Read. Ages 4-8. (Carolrhoda, 1985)
The Secret Soldier by Ann McGovern tells the story of Deborah Sampson born in 1760. Deborah, deprived of her own family and bound into servitude until she was 18, was unwilling to give up the freedom she'd so newly found. To escape marriage and its limitations, the adventurous Deborah, disguised herself as a young soldier and fought in the Revolutionary War, refusing to be a slave to the role her sex prescribed. McGovern's biography is simply told and approachable for a new novel reader and yet does not sacrifice either historical or personal anecdotes for the format. Ages 7-11. (Scholastic, 1975)
Sojouner Truth by Edward Beecher Claflin tells the story of a brave, proud, determined, black woman who was born into slavery in 1797 in New York. Sojourner Truth was a self-given name derived from how she saw her mission. For most of her eighty-six years this tall, proud, eloquent woman traveled and spoke her truth about equality and justice. Clafin's book is filled with quotations, anecdotes and the very human qualities which Sojourner Truth shared with the world. Ages 10 and up. (Barron's, 1987)
Scholastic publishes some excellent young adult biographies which include Ann Rinaldi's Wolf by the Ears, the story of Thomas Jefferson's illegitimate daughter borne by his slave mistress; Dorothy Sterling's Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman; Beatrice Siegel's Faithful Friend: The Story of Florence Nightingale; Mary Francis Shura's Gentle Annie: The True Story of a Civil War Nurse; and Clyde Bulla's Pocahontas and the Strangers.
For those looking for biography collections, I highly recommend Johanna Johnston's They Led the Way: 14 American Women for a 7-10 year old reader. (Scholastic, 1973) and for a young adult reader, Doreen Rappaport's American Women, Their Lives in Their Words (HarperCollins, 1990)