6 Picture Books About Practically Perfect Women
When is National Women's Month?
Who cares. I declare today is National Women's Month because women are fabulous! They dream big, they live large, and when they forget about the opinions of others... girl, watch out, the future is about to change!
So, in honor of women everywhere, here are 6 of my favorite women in beautiful picture books.
1. Only the Best by Kate Messner and Margaret E. Powell
I'd never heard of Ann Lowe before this picture book, but once I read it, I realized I'd been a fan of her work for years. She was the designer for all of Jackie O's wedding dresses!
When she was a little girl, Ann would take the scrap fabric from her grandmother’s dress shop and turn it into flowers. Soon she was learning how to make dresses, and one day she had the opportunity to move to Florida and design dresses exclusively for a family.
Ann's story sounds a lot like Tiana's mother in Disney's The Princess and the Frog, so now I'm curious if the writers were inspired by the best dress designer in America. Despite all the racial segregation in her life, Ann lived her life like she sewed-- Only the Best for her clients and herself.
Who couldn't love a woman like that?
2. Just Being Audrey by Margaret Cardillo
Audrey Hepburn is probably the classiest woman to ever live, at least in my opinion. Of all her films, my favorite is How to Steal a Million, hands down. Funny and witty, with just a touch of suspense and a handsome co-star, Peter O’Toole. Ah, Audrey, they don’t make them like you anymore.
Audrey was considered ugly growing up. But her mother always reminded her that the most beautiful people in the world are kind. And according to the film and stage crews she worked with, Audrey was drenched in beauty. Sometimes she made them spaghetti after filming!
Just Being Audrey shows you how Audrey made her trial-filled life a beautiful life and reminds us all how to “just be me”.
3. The Girl Who Thought in Pictures
She didn’t speak till she was four. She got kicked out of school. She hated hugs. And she was tutored by a former NASA scientist.
And she thinks cows are the coolest.
Temple Grandin is “different, not less”. She’s got autism, and you’ll have a hard time reading about anyone cooler. Born in 1947, Temple’s world didn’t understand autism very well, but animals didn’t care. After she spent some time on her aunt’s farm in Arizona, Temple started to create amazing things. One was her hug machine, modeled after the machines that kept cows calm during vaccinations.
Temple’s story can be found in a movie, the Time magazine, and when she speaks extensively around the world about animals and autism.
4. Shark Lady by Jess Keating
Just about 10 years ago, the Shark Lady passed away at age 92. I’d never even heard of her until this picture book, but she was a fearless woman.
Born in 1922, Eugenie Clark went against convention, both as an educated woman (she earned her Doctorate in 1950) and as a shark advocate. People believed sharks were evil and actively hunted them, but Eugenie found them beautiful. She even grabbed onto one while diving and hitched a ride away from her boat!
You’ll learn all about sharks in this book and about the adventures Eugenie Clark took through her career. One of my favorite stories? She was only bitten by a shark once—at a stoplight. Yeah. You gotta read about that one.
5. Counting on Katherine by Helaine Becker
When Hidden Figures came out, it quickly became my favorite movie. I want to be just like those women, assertive in the right things and aggressive against the wrong things.
The movie centered around Friendship 7’s launch; you remember the scene where astronaut John Glenn refused to believe the men’s calculations until Katherine Johnson did the math (far more precisely than the men!)
But Katherine kept going. The movie had a 10-second blurb before the credits about each of the women’s future accomplishments, but it never mentioned Katherine’s role in the Apollo 13 mission. And, might I add, the Apollo 13 movie didn’t either, which I am more than a little bitter about. Katherine was the one who calculated the flight path home for the three terrified astronauts.
In any case, as the book says, “She was no longer the kid who dreamed of what lay beyond the stars. She was now a star herself.”
6. Dear Librarian by Lydia M. Sigwarth
When I tell people I work in a library, the question that follows is, “Libraries still exist? What’s the use?”
People have no idea how important libraries are, but all the reasons are too long for this post. But one of the greatest resources libraries offer is a place for the homeless to go during the day.
Dear Librarian is about the author’s time when her family was homeless. While extended family was generous and let them stay in their homes, Lydia often felt she wasn’t allowed to touch or be in the houses. And with six siblings and two parents, it was hard to find space! But one day her mother took her to the library, and she met her new best friend.
Prepare to shed a tear or two. And if you want to make your favorite librarian feel special, gift them this book.
*All links are simply links, I don't get any money if you click them. I just want to make finding great stories as easy as possible for you!*
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