Looking for the best books for Women’s History Month in March? These fun books for elementary students are engaging for primary and upper elementary kids. These are books about astounding women in STEM, sports, music, film, art, literature and more for your kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth or fifth grade students. Your students will delight in these classic and new books for elementary students! Interactive read aloud lesson plans and activities for teachers and librarians standards-aligned as well!
If you’re a member of the Picture Book Brain Trust Community, you already have access to EVERY lesson plan and activity for these books! Just click on the Lesson Plans button in the menu!
Children’s Books About Women in Sports and Entertainment
There are many books about women in sports, acting, and more. These are a few of my favorites, but you can see the entire list by clicking on the link above.
Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Venus and Serena Williams. Two peas in a pod. Best friends. Sisters. A list of the best children’s books about women in sports would not be complete without two of the most iconic female athletes of all time.
Six days a week they awoke before the sun came up to practice their serves and returns, to learn to run faster and hit harder. They were unstoppable. At age fourteen, Venus played her first professional match. Three years later, it was Serena’s turn. It wasn’t easy. Some tennis fans cheered for these two fresh faces, while those who were unhappy to see two black girls competing in a nearly all-white sport booed and taunted them. But they didn’t let it stop them.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams HERE
The Girl Who Ran by Frances Poletti
When Bobbi Gibb saw the Boston Marathon her mind was set-she had to be a part of it. But when the time came to apply for the marathon, she was refused entry. They told her girls don’t run, girls can’t run. That didn’t stop Bobbi. This picture book tells the true story of how she broke the rules in 1966 and how, one step at a time, her grit and determination changed the world. Created in collaboration with Bobbi Gibb, The Girl Who Ran is perfect for would-be runners, kids of all ages, and everyone out there with a love of sport.
Get the lesson plan and activities for The Girl Who Ran HERE
Players in Pigtails by Shana Corey
A tribute to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created during WWII, this story focuses on one girl’s journey to the big leagues.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Players in Pigtails HERE
Danza! by Duncan Tonatiuh
As a child, Amalia Hernández saw a pair of dancers in the town square. The way they stomped and swayed to the rhythm of the beat inspired her. She knew one day she would become a dancer.
Amalia studied ballet and modern dance under the direction of skilled teachers who had performed in world-renowned dance companies. But she never forgot the folk dance she had seen years earlier. She began traveling through the Mexican countryside, witnessing the dances of many regions, and she used her knowledge of ballet and modern dance to adapt the traditional dances to the stage. She founded her own dance company, a group that became known as el Ballet Folklórico de México.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Danza! HERE
Diverse Picture Books For Women’s History Month
Here are a few of my absolute favorite books for Women’s History Month to add more diversity to the women you may otherwise read about. These are just a few of my favorites, but you can read the entire list at the link above.
So Tall Within by Gary Schmidt
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans. The story of her life is told through touching verse with powerful illustrations that combine to show the reader just how tall Sojourner Truth really was within through all of her struggles.
Get the lesson plan and activities for So Tall Within HERE
Planting Stories by Anika Aldamuy Denise
When she came to America in 1921, Pura Belpré carried the cuentos folklóricos of her Puerto Rican homeland. Finding a new home at the New York Public Library as a bilingual assistant, she turned her popular retellings into libros and spread story seeds across the land. Today, these seeds have grown into a lush landscape as generations of children and storytellers continue to share her tales and celebrate Pura’s legacy.
A Spanish-language edition, Sembrando historias: Pura Belpré: bibliotecaria y narradora de cuentos, is also available. This is also one of my favorite books for Hispanic Heritage Month!
Get the lesson plan and activities for Planting Stories HERE
RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul by Carole Boston Weatherford
Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days in her father’s Detroit church where her soaring voice spanned more than three octaves. Her string of hit songs earned her the title “the Queen of Soul,” multiple Grammy Awards, and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But Aretha didn’t just raise her voice in song, she also spoke out against injustice and fought for civil rights. This book is told through musical verse with award-winning illustrations by Frank Morrison.
In addition to being one of my favorite books for Women’s History Month, I also really like it for women in sports and entertainment and to talk about different forms of activism.
Get the lesson plan and activities for RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul HERE
For the Right to Learn by Rebecca Langston-George
She grew up in a world where women were supposed to be quiet. But Malala Yousafzai refused to be silent. Discover Malala’s story through this powerful narrative telling, and come to see how one brave girl named Malala changed the world and inspired girls everywhere to learn.
Get the lesson plan and activities for For the Right to Learn HERE
Lillian’s Right to Vote by Jonah Winter
An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family’s tumultuous voting history in this picture book commemorating the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
As Lillian, a one-hundred-year-old African American woman, makes a “long haul up a steep hill” to her polling place, she sees more than trees and sky—she sees her family’s history. She sees the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and her great-grandfather voting for the first time. She sees her parents trying to register to vote. And she sees herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery. All this before voting for the first African American president of the United States.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Lillian’s Right to Vote HERE
Children’s Books About Women in STEM
Sometimes it can be hard to find books about women in STEM to really show girls can do anything and everything. Again, these are just a few of my favorites, but you can see my entire list at the link above 🙂
Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
Inspired by the story of Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space. When Little Mae was a child, she dreamed of dancing in space. She imagined herself surrounded by billions of stars floating gliding and discovering. Follow Mae as she learns that if you can dream it and you work hard for it, anything is possible. An amazing story about a diverse scientist!
Get the lesson plan and activities for Mae Among the Stars HERE
You get a free lesson and activities for Mae Among the Stars here:
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
Ada Twist’s head is full of questions. Like her classmates Iggy and Rosie—stars of their own New York Times bestselling picture books Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer—Ada has always been endlessly curious. Even when her fact-finding missions and elaborate scientific experiments don’t go as planned, Ada learns the value of thinking her way through problems and continuing to stay curious.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Ada Twist Scientist HERE
Counting on Katherine by Helaine Becker
You’ve likely heard of the historic Apollo 13 moon landing. But do you know about the mathematical genius who made sure that Apollo 13 returned safely home? As a child, Katherine Johnson loved to count. She counted the steps on the road, the number of dishes and spoons she washed in the kitchen sink, everything! Boundless, curious, and excited by calculations, young Katherine longed to know as much as she could about math, about the universe.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Counting on Katherine HERE
Solving The Puzzle Under The Sea by Robert Burleigh
Marie Tharp was always fascinated by the ocean. Taught to think big by her father who was a mapmaker, Marie wanted to do something no one had ever done before: map the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Was it even possible? Not sure if she would succeed, Marie decided to give it a try. Despite past failures and challenges—sometimes Marie would be turned away from a ship because having a woman on board was “bad luck”—Marie was determined to succeed. And she did, becoming the first person to chart the ocean floor, helping us better understand the planet we call home.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Solving The Puzzle Under The Sea HERE
The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins
Unearth the true story of green-thumbed pioneer and activist Kate Sessions, who helped San Diego grow from a dry desert town into a lush, leafy city known for its gorgeous parks and gardens.
Katherine Olivia Sessions never thought she’d live in a place without trees. After all, Kate grew up among the towering pines and redwoods of Northern California. But after becoming the first woman to graduate from the University of California with a degree in science, she took a job as a teacher far south in the dry desert town of San Diego. Where there were almost no trees.
Kate decided that San Diego needed trees more than anything else. So this trailblazing young woman singlehandedly started a massive movement that transformed the town into the green, garden-filled oasis it is today. Now, more than 100 years after Kate first arrived in San Diego, her gorgeous gardens and parks can be found all over the city. A perfect book for Arbor Day or for Women’s History Month!
Get the lesson plan and activities for The Tree Lady HERE
Conclusion: Best Books For Women’s History Month
These are just some of my favorite children’s books for Women’s History Month.
TL;DR
Check out all of my favorite books for Women’s History Month by category: