JLG’s Women’s History Month Booklist for 2024
Celebrate National Women’s History Month with a few recommendations from our esteemed editorial team!
JLG’s Winter 2023 Span
Lion on the Inside: How One Girl Change Basketball
By Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir & Judith Henderson, illustrated by Katherine Ahmed
JLG Category: Sports Elementary Plus
JLG Release: Nov 2023
Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir is a former collegiate basketball player who made history as the first NCAA player to wear a hijab. Despite holding a high-school shooting record and having the skill to propel her to the professional level, Abdul-Qaadir’s career was cut short because rules prohibited wearing a hijab in games. In Lion on the Inside, we see her struggle but ultimately choose her faith. She is now a motivational speaker and activist. The prohibition on headgear has since been overturned in part due to her efforts.
Piece by Piece: Ernestine’s Gift for President Roosevelt
By Lupe Ruiz-Flores, illustrated by Anna López Real
JLG Category: Instructional Nonfiction History Grades 3–5
JLG Release: Nov 2023
Ernestine Guerrero, a young girl who grew up during the Great Depression, realized that the New Deal programs were helping her family, and many others, to survive. Using found materials and learning as she worked, Guerrero spent years carving a gift for President Roosevelt. Her intricate clock case is still on display at the Roosevelt Presidential Library.
The Sculptors of Light: Poems About Cuban Artists
La escultoras de la luz: poemas sobre artistas cubano
By Margarita Engle, illustrated by Cecilia Puglesi
JLG Category: Biography Middle Plus & Spanish Middle
JLG Release: Feb 2024
Eleven vividly illustrated poems, and accompanying historical notes, tell the stories of Cuban women artists, including painter Amelia Peláez, sculptor Rita Longa, and architect María Margarita Egaña Fernández, who are largely unknown in the United States but celebrated in Cuba. Engle also acknowledges the many anonymous indigenous women artists, women whose names were eclipsed by their husband’s, and artists whose achievements have been labeled “handicrafts, folk art, [or] women’s work.”
By Jagger Youssef
JLG Category: Instructional Nonfiction History Grades 6–8
JLG Release: Jan 2024
Learn about Abigail Adams through her own words—taken from her dedicated correspondence to husband John Adams and others. This book covers Adams’s life during the Revolutionary War and the early days of the country, including her thoughts on women’s rights and whether a country can really be built on the ideals of freedom and equality when people are enslaved.
The Race to Be Myself: A Memoir
By Caster Semenya
JLG Category: Sports High
JLG Release: Feb 2024
Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya tackles her decades-long struggle with speculation about her gender and intrusive gender-confirming tests. Semenya is intersex, a biological condition she was born with that made her the center of a media firestorm and caused her to be banned from competition. Here, the renowned South African athlete takes back her story with poignant force, describing her life, career, and future.
The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts
By Loren Grush
JLG Category: Biography High Plus
JLG Release: Dec 2023
NASA was a men’s-only club until 1977, when women finally were permitted to train as astronauts. Thousands applied, and six were chosen: Sally Ride, Judy Resnick, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. This is their story.
Breakthrough: Katalin Karikó and the mRNA Vaccine
By Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
JLG Category: Biography High Plus
JLG Release: Jan 2024
Nobel Prize winner Katalin Karikó’s research was instrumental in the development of mRNA vaccines. Born and raised in rural Hungary, Karikó struggled for years to find acceptance and support in the US scientific community. Karikó’s dogged determination and her belief in the importance of her work make for a compelling biography.
JLG’s Spring 2024 Span
Not Yet: The Story of an Unstoppable Skater
By Hadley Davis & Zahra Lari, illustrated by Sara Alfageeh
JLG Category: Sports Elementary Plus
JLG Release: Apr 2024
Zahra Lari is an Emirati, Muslim ice skater who became the first skater to internationally compete in a hijab. However, Lari first faced struggles learning how to ice skate and break into the sport—repeating “not yet” to everyone who doubted her. Co-authored by Hadley Davis, who wrote the movie that first inspired Lari to become a skater.
Jane Kendeigh: Brave Nurse of World War II
by Emma Carlson Berne, illustrated by Karen De La Vega
JLG Category: Instructional Nonfiction History Grades 3–5
JLG Release: May 2024
Jane Kendeigh was the first US Navy flight nurse on the ground in the Battle of Iwo Jima. This graphic nonfiction account shows the intense training—including hand-to-hand combat and crash-landing practice—and dangerous conditions Kendeigh faced on the ground and in the air during her courageous and compassionate World War II service.
Spying on Spies: How Elizebeth Smith Friedman Broke the Nazis’ Secret Codes
by Marissa Moss
JLG Category: Biography Middle Plus
JLG Release: May 2024
Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a highly skilled and influential codebreaker, was often overshadowed due to her gender and her husband’s work. She went on to become the first female codebreaker for the US Treasury Department and Coast Guard, eventually forming her own unit. This accessible, thoroughly researched biography, featuring comic panels throughout, brings well-deserved attention to Smith Friedman’s life and work.
The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II
By Candace Fleming
JLG Category: Nonfiction Middle Plus
JLG Release: May 2024
During World War II, a group of brave, bright young English women, many of them still teenagers, answered a vague summons: “You are to report to Station X at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, in four days time. . . . That is all you need to know.” At the top-secret codebreaking site, they took vows of secrecy, which they kept for decades. In this book, readers learn the little known stories of ten of these teenagers.
Remember My Story: A Girl, a Holocaust Survivor, and a Friendship that Changed History
By Clarie Sarnowski with Sarah Durand
JLG Category: Instructional Nonfiction Social Studies Grades 6–8
JLG Release: May 2024
Claire Sarnowski was nine years old when she first met Alter Wiener, a Holocaust survivor and educator. Moved by his memoir and his speech to students, Sarnowski immediately wanted to help others learn from the past and spread his message of kindness. The two became friends and together went to the state senate to fight for mandatory Holocaust education in Oregon’s public school curriculum.
Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You
By A’ja Wilson
JLG Category: Sports High
JLG Release: Apr 2024
A’ja Wilson—despite gold medals, WNBA championships, and many accolades—knows how it feels not to be heard, not to feel seen, not to be taken seriously. Here, she skillfully turns her life experiences, from racism to a late dyslexia diagnosis, into powerful lessons for not only young athletes but black women everywhere.
Ruth Asawa: An Artist Takes Shape
Written and illustrated by Sam Nakahira
JLG Category: Biography High Plus
JLG Release: Mar 2024
Ruth Asawa is a Japanese American artist known best for her wire sculptures. Asawa’s youth was punctuated by her family’s forced exile into US Japanese incarceration camps. This compelling graphic biography details how Asawa nonetheless pursued her passion and persevered to become a renowned artist.
By Madeline Pendleton
JLG Category: Adult Crossover Nonfiction Plus
JLG Release: Mar 2024
Madeline Pendleton grew up facing hunger and homelessness but went on to build a successful business, where she now shares profits equally with her employees. Her irreverent, spirited memoir is filled with practical information, including how to build credit, find an apartment, and negotiate a raise.
Shakespeare’s Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance
By Ramie Targoff
JLG Category: Adult Crossover Nonfiction Plus
JLG Release: May 2024
In Shakespeare's time, women were legally the property of men, but here are four remarkable female writers who created memorable work despite the odds. The poetry, plays, and diaries of Mary Sidney, Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Cary, and Anne Clifford provide fresh perspectives on women in Renaissance England.
