This blog is all about texts that are perfect for celebrating Women’s History Month in a middle school or high school classroom. 

Whether you are looking for little snippets to read each day in class, supplying engaging reading resources for your students, trying to create themed writing prompts, searching for useful sources for class projects, or developing a whole unit for Women’s History month, the books listed here will be supremely useful!

I’ve separated the list into two groups of five: one set has a ton of great reading supports through various text features (imagery, subheadings, captions, etc.) and the second set is chalk full of detail and presented at a higher reading level.

I’m confident that all ten of these books would have a spot in both the Middle School or High School classroom. It’s all about how you use them! At the very least, these would be GREAT texts to drum up excitement for an upcoming biography project.

The First Five: Great Reading Supports!

These books made the list due to their brilliant and engaging illustrations, enticing and captivating tidbits of information scattered throughout, and their heavy use of text features to draw the readers’ attention to what’s really important! 

One might read through the whole text, but most likely these would be great tools for short research projects, quick read alouds or paired readings, and daily influxes of Women’s History Month information. 

The Women Who Make History Collection: Women in Science, Women in Sports, Women in Art. 

Rachel Ignotofsky (author and illustrator)

This collection is filled with wonderful artistry, brief biographies, and other features like timelines and glossaries that really help bring to life these notable women! This would be a great selection for quick reads or short dips into the biographies of notable women. 

Anthology of Amazing Women: Trailblazers Who Dared to be Different

Sandra Lawrence (author), Nathan Collins (illustrator)

This is another collection that has beautiful artistry alongside short biographical pieces about each woman. It showcases women for a multitude of achievements in sports, the arts, politics, and history.

The Table of Contents page is helpfully organized by the area in which these women excelled: Women in Art, Women in Science, etc. Some pages have lovely short snippets about women while other pages go into more in-depth biographies. This selection would be great for quick reads as well as digging deeper.

Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers & Rebels

Linda Skeers (author), Livi Gosling (illustrator)

This text has the women the feature separated into three different sections: daredevils, adventurers, and rebels. Other helpful information in the table of contents are the time frame the woman lived, where they were born, what they were known for, and of course, what page their story can be found on. 

The fact that each story is told on one page spread is another great feature of this book. 

Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World

Katherine Halligan (author), Sarah Walsh (illustrator)

How fantastic that this book highlights women AND girls! Another great feature is the way the Table of Contents is organized. It is organized in Chapters like, “Believe & Lead” and “Hope & Overcome” amongst others. There is also a page of chapter explanations to inform the readers of what type of woman they may find in each chapter. 

Other great features include a “When They Were Born” picture wall spread, a colorful glossary, and an index; not to mention the detailed biographies full of helpful text features like subheadings, images, captions, and pull quotes!

Rebel Girls Dream Big Box Set

Various Authors and Illustrators

This set is so cool! I started geeking out a little bit when I saw that in addition to five great texts (125 stories total), it comes with a bonus notebook! Say what?!! The set has titles such as, “25 Tales of Mothers and Daughters”, “25 Tales of Women Who Protect the Earth”, and more!

This would be such a great set to add to the classroom or gift to a preteen in your life. The reading age is listed at 8-12 (grade level 3-7). Each story has a short biography alongside a beautiful illustration.

Aside from this set, there is more in the Rebel Girls series. You should really check it out!

The Second Five: Lots of Detail!

These selections may be a little more challenging for readers as they are organized more like a chapter book with fewer text features and imagery in comparison to the other books on the list. They are also classified as having higher reading levels. 

None-the-less, they are CHALK FULL of great information and could still be used in Middle School too. You know your learners and what texts are accessible to them. My suggestion would be to attack these texts with a “divide and conquer” approach

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women

Catherine Thimmesh (author), Melissa Sweet (illustrator)

The fantastic thing about this book is how it starts. It has a glossary of dates, the woman’s name and what she invented. This is perfect for simply browsing to find what catches your eye OR it could be a great resource for a student research project! Have each student pick a woman and her invention and have them do a ONE-PAGER on it!

Extraordinary Women in History: 70 Remarkable Women Who Made a Difference, Inspired, & Broke Barriers

Leah Gail (author)

This is another text that has a wonderfully arranged table of contents. Also separated into chapters, this book has chapters with titles such as, “Athletic Women and Daredevils of the Sky” and “Women with Wanderlust and Conservationists.”

Bookish Broads: Women Who Wrote Themselves into History

Lauren Marino (author), Alexandra Kilburn (illustrator)

This book focuses on writers throughout history. As I was researching for this post, this one sucked me in! Starting again with a well-organized and sectioned off table of contents, the book has more illustrations scattered throughout it than the first two on this list. 

Each of the books sections also starts with a brief explanation of the section and the contents of each section contain several pull quotes that draw and focus interest as well.

The Illustrated Feminist: 100 Years of Suffrage, Strength, and Sisterhood in America

Aura Lewis (author and illustrator)

If you’re looking for a more recent historical rundown by decade, then this book is your girl. The chapters in this book follow each decade and instead of focusing specifically on one woman, the book describes women’s advancement during this time frame. 

This is a great text that speaks specifically to the feminist movement and what women’s strength, suffrage, and sisterhood has accomplished over the last 100 years.

Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights

Mikki Kendall (author), A. D’Amico (illustrator)

I was super stoked when I came across this book! I wasn’t sure which list to add this to at first. This is a graphic history of women’s rights. How cool is that?! So, while it obviously has loads of imagery, I added it to this second list – – the one that has a lot of detail but most importantly the reading age is listed for 12-17 years.

I immediately thought of all my students who absolutely love graphic novels and pretty much refuse to pick up a text that isn’t one :). This text stands strong on this list for its description of the ongoing struggle of women’s rights across human history AND because it’s structure and imagery are so unique in comparison to the others. It stands out – in the best of ways!

In conclusion,

There are many wonderful books to choose from, but getting them into the hands of our students is the most important step of this process. I hope this blog gets you one step closer to doing just that!!

If you’re interested in other Women’s History Month Resources, make sure to check out my TPT Store. I have several resources including the Women’s History Month Activities | Project Choice Bundle . It includes four student-led projects that have students reflecting more about the amazing women in this world AND it includes assessment and feedback tools that make grading it a breeze! Read all about it in my Product Spotlight blog. 

Additionally, I have created the Women’s History Month Daily Agenda Google Slides. This daily slides set is perfect for Women’s History month but it is cute in its own right! Use it during the month of March or ANY TIME OF YEAR!!

If you like the look of these, I have a FREEBIE that you’ll absolutely LOVE!! It’s a three day Women’s History Month themed journal set.

Click on the link to get it sent directly to your email inbox!!

As always, thanks for coming over to my side of the web to take a look at what I have to share and what resources I have created.

I hope this has been interesting and insightful. Here’s to all the wonderful women in our lives – I’m ever so grateful.

Take care friends,

Talk soon.