Women in Focus Booklist

Didn’t catch our Women’s Suffrage Storytime yesterday? Well here it is….and here is an accompanying booklist!

Suffrage

Votes for Women! American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling
On August 18, 1920, American women finally won the right to vote. Ratification of the 19th Amendment was the culmination of an almost eighty-year fight in which some of the fiercest, most passionate women in history marched, protested, and sometimes broke the law in to achieve this huge leap toward equal rights.

 

Vote! Women’s Fight for Access to the Ballot Box by Coral Celeste Frazer
August 18, 2020, marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibited states and the US government from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. See how the 70-year-long fight for women’s suffrage was hard won by leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt and others.

 

March of the Suffragettes by Zachary Michael Jack
March of the Suffragettes tells the forgotten, real-life story of “General” Rosalie Gardiner Jones, who in the waning days of 1912 mustered and marched an all-women army nearly 200 miles to help win support for votes for women. 

 

 

Around America to Win the Vote by Mara Rockliff and Hadley Hooper
In April 1916, Nell Richardson and Alice Burke set out from New York City in a little yellow car, embarking on a bumpy, muddy, unmapped journey ten thousand miles long. They took with them a teeny typewriter, a tiny sewing machine, a wee black kitten, and a message for Americans all across the country: Votes for Women!

 

Dear America: A Time for Courage by Kathryn Lasky
January 19, 1917—The picket line has been going on for over a week! And people said they would not last a day and the weather still has not broken. What’s more is news of the picket is spreading and more and more women are coming from other parts of the district and some from as far away as Maryland and Virginia. President Wilson felt so sorry for them in the cold that he invited them in for coffee but they refused. 

 

Suffrage Sisters by Maggie Mead
Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke before an eager crowd in Seneca Falls, New York, on a hot July morning in 1948. She began her speech with words that were familiar to American ears: But the ideas that followed were radical. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal” Stanton went on to boldly demand equal rights for women–including suffrage, the right to vote.

 

The Woman Suffrage Cookbook by Hattie A. Burr
The Woman Suffrage Cookbook was the first of several fundraising cookbooks published in support of the movement behind the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Edited and compiled by Hattie A. Burr, it features recipes from prominent suffragists as well as from women eminent in their fields: teachers, lecturers, physicians, ministers, and authors.

 

The 19th Amendment by Laura Loria and Amelie von Zumbusch
The culmination of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States was the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Introduce young readers to the fight for equal voting rights and the value of primary sources in the study of history with this age-appropriate resource. The amendment itself is cited in full, while brief passages from other primary sources illuminate the long struggle for the franchise. 

 

General

Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar
In 1942, when Mahatma Gandhi asks Indians to give one family member to the freedom movement, ten-year-old Anjali is devastated to think of her father risking his life for the freedom struggle. But it turns out he isn’t the one joining. Anjali’s mother is. 

 

We Are Power: How Nonviolent Activism Changes the World by Todd Hasak-Lowry
We Are Power brings to light the incredible individuals who have used nonviolent activism to change the world. The book explores questions such as what is nonviolent resistance and how does it work? In an age when armies are stronger than ever before, when guns seem to be everywhere, how can people confront their adversaries without resorting to violence themselves?

 

Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renee Watson
Activist, motivational speaker, and daughter of Malcolm X Ilyasah Shabazz celebrates her mother’s idealism and strength of character in a touching new book. Betty Before X is the story of Dr. Betty Shabazz before she became a figurehead for the Civil Rights Movement. 

 

Girl Under a Red Moon: Growing Up During China’s Cultural Revolution by Da Chen
In a small village called Yellow Stone, in southeastern China, Sisi is a model sister, daughter, and student. She brews tea for her grandfather in the morning, leads recitations at school as class monitor, and helps care for her youngest brother, Da. But when students are selected during a school ceremony to join the prestigious Red Guard, Sisi is passed over. 

 

Lost Girl Found by Leah Bassoff
For Poni, life in her small village in southern Sudan is simple and complicated at the same time. Stay in school. Beat up any boy who tries to show attention. Watch out for the dangers in the river. But then the war comes. And when soldiers arrive in her village, and bombs begin to rain from the sky, there is only one thing for Poni to do. Run. Run for her life.

 

The Women’s Rights Movement by Eric Braun
Women have come a long way since the first women’s rights convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848—but women’s rights activists are still working to expand rights today. What are the main concerns of women’s rights activists today? And what challenges have women faced in the 1800s, 1900s, and 2000s in their fight for equality?