Women in History Thematic Collection (Last updated July 2012)
Some titles in this matrix are picture books with spare text, some are full biographies, and some are collections of shorter biographies about several women
(marked bio; group). All focus on important (though not necessarily always famous) women in history.
Title
Type
Difficulty
Woman/ Women
Highlighted
Picture Book of
Sojourner Truth, A
Thank You, Sarah: The
Woman Who Saved
Thanksgiving
Women of the Bible
Bio;
individual
NF/P
Medium
Sojourner Truth
Medium
Sarah Hale
Bio; group
Medium
Bio
Difficult
17 women in both
Old and New
Testaments
Alice Paul
Bio; group
Medium
Author
Adler, D.
Anderson,
Laurie
Armstrong, C.
Bausum, Ann
Bolden, T.
With Courage and
Cloth
And Not Afraid to Dare
Women’s suffrage
GED
Anna Howard
Shaw
Variety
Affected by Civil War
U.S. 18th century
Medium
Medium
Variety
Variety
Women in WW II
Journalists in WW II
Medium
Variety
Workers; social
activists
U.S. 1930s-40s
Europe, Asia; mid
1940s
New York; early
1900s
3 women
NF
Easy
Dolley Madison
Ruth Law Thrills a
Nation
Uncommon Traveler
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Nonfiction,
diaries,
letters, bio
Nonfiction
Nonfiction;
memoirs
Nonfiction
Easy
Ruth Law
Easy
Easy
We Shall Not Be Moved
20th C
England and
Africa; 19th century
U.S. 1800s
Easy
Dash, J.
Women’s right to
vote
Courageous
Adventurers
Nonfiction
Rosie the Riveter
Where the Action Was
Biblical times
Mary Kingsley
Alice Ramsey’s Grand
Adventure
Dolley Madison Saves
George Washington
Colman, P.
Colman, P.
Biblical
During the War of
1812
Brown, Don
Chang, I.
19th C
First Lady; Saved a
large portrait of
George Washington
from fire.
Aviator
Easy
Voices from the
Wilderness
A Separate Battle:
Women in the Civil War
Author, publisher,
activist
U.S., early 1900s
Bio;
individual
Brown. Don
U.S. 1800s
Adventurers
Fly High!
Brown. Don
Abolitionist
Aviator
Borden, L., &
Kroeger, M.K.
Brown. Don
Setting (Time
and/or Place)
U.S.; 18th—20th
centuries
U.S., early 1900s
10 African
American women
Bessie Colman
Brown, Don
Role in History
Notes
First African
American woman to
earn pilot’s license
Drove cross country
U.S. early 1900s
Shirtwaist industry
Demi
Fredeen, C.
Mother Teresa
Nellie Bly
Medium
Medium
Mother Teresa
Nellie Bly
GED
Martha Graham
GED
Eleanor Roosevelt
Medium
African Princess
Bio
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
NF/P
Freedman, R.
Freedman, R.
Martha Graham: A
Dancer’s Life
Eleanor Roosevelt
Gilliland, J.
Steamboat!
Hansen, J.
Hansen, J.
Women of Hope
Bio; group
Easy
Hazell, R.
Heroines
Bio; group
Easy
Capt. Blanche
Leathers
6 African
princesses
13 African
American women
12 women
Jemison, M.
Find Where the Wind
Goes
She Would Not Be
Moved
Autobio;
individual
NF
Medium
Mae Jemison
Medium
Rosa Parks
Kuhn, B.
Angels of Mercy
Nonfiction
Medium
Variety
Lawrence, J.
Harriet and the
Promised Land
She’s Been Working on
the Railroad
Verses: A Celebration
of Outstanding Women
Poetry
Easy
Harriet Tubman
Nonfiction
GED
Variety
Bio/Poet.
Medium
13 outstanding
women
Bio;
individual
GED
Ka’iulani, Crown
Princess of Hawaii
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
NF, Bio
GED
Author
Early 20th century
Medium
Zora Neale
Hurston
Dian Fossey
Zoologist
Studied and tried to
protect gorillas
Difficult
Marie Curie
Discovery of
radiation
Africa, U.S.; 20th
century
19th C
His. Fiction
Easy
Grania O’Malley
Elizabethan
England
Based on a true
story
Kohl, Herbert
Levinson, N.
Lewis, J.
Patrick
Linnea, S.
Lyons, M.
Matthews, T.
McClafferty,
Carla
McCully, E.
Princess Ka’iulani:
Hope of a Nation, Heart
of a People
Sorrow’s Kitchen
Light Shining Through
the Mist
Something Out of
Nothing: Marie Curie
and Radiation
Pirate Queen, The
Medium
Helping poor
Journalist; social
activist
Dancer;
choreographer
First lady; social
activist
First female
steamboat captain
Ancient Egypt to
present
Variety
Important
contributions
1st woman of color to
become astronaut
Was an important
figure in the Civil
Rights Movement
Army nurses in WW
II
Abolitionist
Railroad workers
Athletes, poets,
painters,
statewomen,
activists
Monarch
Pirate
20th C
U.S. turn of 20th
century
U.S. 20th century
Investigative reporter
U.S.; 20th century
U.S. late 1800’s
U.S.; 19th—20th
centuries
Early Greece
through 20th
century
U.S.; 20th century
Montgomery,
Alabama, 1950s
Europe, Asia, U.S.;
1930s-40s
U.S.; mid-1800s
U.S.; mid-1800s to
present
19th C-20th C
Hawaii, U.S.; late
19th century
McGill, A.
Molly Bannaky
Princess of the Press
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
NF
Easy
Molly Bannaky
Freed slave
U.S.; 1600s
McGovern, A.
Wanted Dead or Alive
Easy
Harriet Tubman
Abolitionist
U.S.; 19th century
Medearis,
Angela
Medium
Ida Wells-Barnett
Advocate for
women’s vote, civil
rights, founder of
NAACP, and
newspaper publisher
20th C
Meltzer, M.
Ten Queens
Bio; group
Medium
Variety
Monarchs
Buffalo Gals: Women of
the Old West
Nonfiction
GED
Variety
Miller, B.M.
Good Women of a
Well-Blessed Land
Nonfiction
GED
Variety
Famous and ordinary
women of the US
West.
Famous and ordinary
women of early
America
5th century BC to
18th century
Western U.S.; 18th
and 19th centuries
Miller, B.M.
Morpurgo,
Michael
Joan of Arc
NF, F
Difficult
Joan of Arc
Moss, M.
Brave Harriet
Bio;
individual
Easy
Harriet Quimby
O’Dell, S.
Streams to the River,
River to the Sea
Restless Spirit: The Life
and Work of Dorothea
Lange
Let It Shine
Historical
fiction
Bio;
individual
GED
Sacagawea
Difficult
Dorothea Lange
Bio;
individuals
Bio
Medium
African American
leaders
Daisy Bates
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Historical
fiction
Medium
Partridge, E.
Pinkney, A.
Polakow, Amy
Porter, A.P.
Daisy Bates, Civil
Rights Crusader
Jump at De Sun
Reich, S.
Clara Schumann
Ryan, P. M.
Amelia and Eleanor Go
For a Ride
Difficult
Medium
Medium
Zora Neale
Hurston
Clara Schumann
Amelia Earhart;
Eleanor Roosevelt
Colonial U.S.
Lead French armies
to defeat the English
15th C France
Aviator
U.S. and Europe;
early 20th century
Native American
guide
Photographer of
major events in the
early 20th century
“Freedom fighters”
U.S.; 18th century
Civil Rights Leader in
Little Rock, AR
Author
Musician
Aviator; First Lady/
Social activist
Benjamin Banneker’s
grandma
Overcame enormous
odds as a women
and an African
American to
accomplish lasting
work
White, African
American, and
Native American
women featured
Despite the victory,
was burned at the
stake as a heretic
but later determined
a saint.
1st woman with pilot’s
license; 1st woman to
fly across English
Channel
Lewis and Clark’s
guide
U.S. early 1900’s
U.S.; 19th and 20th
centuries
20th C. USA
U.S.; early 20th
century
Europe; 19th
century
U.S.; 1940s
Civil Rights; abolition
Bio
Wife of Robert
Schumann
Schoonmaker,
F.
Schroeder, A.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Stanley, D.
Cleopatra
Stanley, D.
Joan of Arc
Stanley, D., &
Venema, P.
Stanley, F.
Good Queen Bess: The
Story of Elizabeth I of
England
Last Princess, The
Stanley, J.
Big Annie of Calumet
Szabo, C.
Sky Pioneer
Thomas, J.C.
I Have Heard of a Land
Weatherford,
C.
Weatherford,
Carole
Becoming Billie Holiday
Winter, J.
Librarian of Basra, The
Winter, J.
My Name is Georgia
Minty
Moses
Author
U.S.; 19th century
Abolitionist
U.S.; 19th century
Monarch
Ancient Egypt
Joan of Arc
Martyr
Medium
Elizabeth I
Monarch
France; Middle
Ages
England; 17th
century
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Medium
Monarch
Medium
Ka’iulani, Crown
Princess of Hawaii
Annie Clemenc
Easy
Amelia Earhart
Easy
Unnamed African
American woman
Bio;
Individual
F, NF
Medium
Billie Holiday
Medium
Harriett Tubman
NF/P
Easy
Bio;
individual
Easy
Alia Muhammad
Baker
Georgia O’Keefe
Poetry; bio
Easy
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Bio;
individual
Easy
Edna St. Vincent
Millay
Harriet Tubman
Medium
Cleopatra
Medium
Labor organizer
Aviator
Homesteader
Hawaii, U.S.; late
19th century
U.S.; early 20th
century
U.S.; early 20th
century
Western U.S.; late
19th century
Popular jazz singer
U.S. early 1900’s
Led slaves to
freedom on the
Underground
Railway
Protector of library in
Basra, Iraq
Artist
19th C
21st C, Iraq
Western U.S.; 20th
century
Poetry featured more
than biography
Focuses on
childhood
Led miners’ strike of
1913
Stakes a homestead
claim in Oklahoma;
based on a true story
Comparison with
Moses’ leading
people to freedom