Picture Book Biographies

Andrea Davis Pinkney (A) and Brian Pinkney (ILT)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Performance /Composer / Jazz – 2006)

A swinging, vibrant picture book about America’s greatest jazz composer, Duke Ellington. By the award-winning duo Andrea and Brian Pinkney. (32 pgs) Ages 4-8

• Grade Level: Kindergarten – 4
• Product Dimensions: 8.5…

Laura Driscoll (A) and Jill Weber (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / Scientist – 2003)

Annie Marcus is just nuts about peanut butter! When Annie finds out that George Washington Carver was responsible for the popularity of peanuts, she picks him for her scientist report. Annie learns all…

Walter Dean Myers (A) and Leonard Jenkins (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Civil Rights Movement History – 2003)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is one of the most celebrated figures of the twentieth century. A crusader for nonviolent social justice, he led African Americans in their demands for equality through peaceful…

Walter Dean Myers (A), Leonard Jenkins (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Leader / Revolutionary – 2003)

“I believe in recognizing every human being
as a human being, neither white, black, brown, nor red.”

This was just one of the messages that Malcolm X brought to people of…

Deloris Jordan (A) and Kadir Nelson (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback- Biography / Sports / Basketball – 2000)

Young Michael Jordan, who is smaller than the other players, learns that determination and hard work are more important than size when playing the game of basketball. (32 pgs) Ages 4-8

• Product Dimensions:…

Lesa Cline-Ransome (A) and James E. Ransome (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Sport / Baseball – 2005)

This book examines the life of the legendary baseball player, who was the first African-American to pitch in a Major League World Series. Some say Leroy Paige was born six…

Kadir Nelson (A and ILT)

List Price: $21.99 (Hardcover – Sports / Negro League Baseball – 2008)

2010 Coretta Scott King Author Award and Illustrator Honor Award

We are the ship; all else the sea. Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League

The story of…

Scott Reynolds Nelson (A) and Marc Aronson (A)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – History / John Henry / Folk Hero – 2007)

Who was the real John Henry? The story of this legendary African-American figure has come down to us in so many songs, stories, and plays, that the facts are often lost.…

Jonah Winter (A) and A G Ford (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography – African American History / 44th President 2008)

This is a journey that began in many places.

It began in Kansas, home of Barack’s mother. It began in Africa, home…

Nikki Grimes (A) and Bryan Collier (ILT)

List Price: $9.99 (Paperback – Biography – African American History/President – 2008)

Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he has held…

Veronica Chambers (A) and Julie Maren (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback- Cuban Singer / Queen of Salsa – 2005)

Everyone knows the flamboyant, larger-than-life Celia Cruz, the extraordinary salsa singer who passed away in 2003, leaving millions of fans brokenhearted. indeed, there was a magical vibrancy to the Cuban salsa singer. to hear…

Paula Young Shelton (A) and Ralu Colo (ILT)

List Price: $8.99  (Paperback – African American History / Civil Rights Era – 2009)

Two parents decide to return with their three daughters to the Deep South during the time of the Freedom Riders, the early 1960s, returning to Georgia…

Kadir Nelson (A) and Ntozake Shange (ILT)

List Price $17.99 (Hardcover – African American History / Civil Rights Leader – 2009)

Walking many miles to school in the dusty road, young Coretta knew, too well, the unfairness of life in the segregated south.

A yearning for equality began to grow.
Together with Martin…

Peter Golenbock (A) and Paul Lee (A) and (ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / Sports / Baseball – 2005)

This is a true story about one of baseballs most heroic superstars who is best known for beating Babe Ruth’s record. Later he was admitted into Baseballs elite…

Ellen Levin (A) and Kadir Nelson (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – African American History /Escape to Freedom – 2007)

A stirring, dramatic story of a slave who mails himself to freedom by a Jane Addams Peace Award-winning author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning artist.

Henry Brown doesn’t know how old he…

Walter Dean Myers (A) and Bonnie Christensen (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Activist – Journalist/ Exposed Lynching – 2008)

Ida B. Wells was an extraordinary woman. Long before boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom rides, Ida B. Wells was hard at work to better the lives…

Donna Jo Napoli (A) and Kadir Nelson (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Biography – East Africa / Visionary/ Tree Planting / Green Belt Movement – Kenya – 2010)

One woman. One seed.

One hope for the future.

Thayu nyumba — Peace, my people.

Wangari grew up in the shadow of Mount Kenya…

Carole Boston Weatherford (A) and Kadir Nelson (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – African American History / Leader / Spiritual / Bravery – 2006)

A CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK

 “I set the North Star in the heavens and I mean for you to be free.”

Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman hears these words from…

Kadir Nelson (A and ILT)

List Price: $11.99 (Paperback – African Leader / South Africa – 2013)

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book

In this picture book biography, award-winning author and illustrator Kadir Nelson tells the story of Mandela, a global icon, in poignant free verse and glorious illustrations. It is the story…

Anne Rockwell (A) and R. Gregory Christie (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / African American Hisotry / Abolitionist / Women Rights – 2002)

Powerful picture book biography of one of the abolitionist movement most compelling voices.

Sojourner Truth traveled the country…

Audrey Vernick (A) and Don Tate (ILT) Harper Collins

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Baseball – 2010)

Effa always loved baseball. As a young woman, she would go to Yankee Stadium just to see Babe Ruth’s mighty swing. But she never dreamed she…

Andrea Davis Pinkney (A) and Brian Pinkney (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / African American Leader / Abolitionist and Feminist – 2009)

A dynamic portrait of the freed slave whose physical and spiritual strength made her one of America most powerful abolitionist voices.

Synopsis:She was big. She was black. She was…

William Kamkwamba (A), Bryan Mealer (A) and Elizabeth Zunon (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Ingenuity /African Village / Making A Windmill / Believing In Self – 2012

When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba’s Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone’s crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William…

Robert Coles (A) and George Ford (ILT)

List Price: $18.89  (Hardcover – Biography / Civil Rights / Integration – 2004)

Please, God, try to forgive those people. Because even if they say those bad things, They dont know what theyre doing. This is the true…

Kadir Nelson (A and ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / African American Leader – 2014)

A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book

From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King: My father’s dream continues to live on from generation to generation, and this beautiful and powerful illustrated edition…

Margaret Musgrove (A) Leo Dillon (ILT) and Diane Dillon (ILT)

List Price $21.99 (Hardcover – 26 African Tribes / Traditions – 1992)

From A to Z, an authentic portrait of 26 African tribes, stunningly illustrated by winners of the 1976 & 1977 Caldecott Medal. The magnificently composed pictures are warm with the tones…

Ilyasha Shabazz (A) and AG Ford (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – African American Leader / Civil Rights Era – 2014)

Malcolm X grew to be one of America’s most influential figures. But first, he was a boy named Malcolm Little. Written by his daughter, this inspiring picture book biography celebrates a vision…

Ann Turner (A) and James Ransome (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Abolitionist / Women’s Rights Activist / Evangelists – 2015)

Here is the remarkable true story of how former slave Isabella Baumfree transformed herself into the preacher and orator Sojourner Truth, as told by acclaimed author Ann Turner and award-winning…

Jonah Winter (A) and Terry Widener (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 ( Hardcover – Baseball Legend – 2013)

Many believe baseball great willie Mays to be the best player that ever lived. He hit 660 home runs (fourth best of all time), had a lifetime batting average of .302, and is second only to…

Jabari Asim (A) and Bryan Collier

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Educator / Self Reliance -2012)

Booker dreamed
of making friends with words,
setting free the secrets
that lived in books.

Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington could only dream of learning to read and write. After emancipation, Booker…

Lisa Cline Ransome (A) and James E. Ransome (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Leader / Abolitionist / Orator – 2012)

The inspirational, true story of how Frederick Douglass found his way to freedom one word at a time.

This picture book biography chronicles the youth of Frederick Douglass, one of…

Misty Copeland (A) and Christopher Myers (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Ballerina – 2014)

In her debut picture book, Misty Copeland tells the story of a young girl–an every girl–whose confidence is fragile and who is questioning her own ability to reach the heights that Misty has reached. Misty encourages this young…

Aliki (A and ILT)

List Price: $7.99 (Paperback – Biography / Scientist – 1988)

From humble beginnings, George Washington Carver became one of the greatest scientist in the United States. His dedication to helping his people led him to find over three hundred uses for…

Louise Borden (A), Mary Kay Kroeger (A) and Teresa Flavin (ILT)

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – First Black Aviator – 2004)

When Bessie Coleman was a child, she wanted to be in school — not in the cotton fields of Texas, helping her family earn money. She wanted to be somebody significant in…

Carole Boston Weatherford (A) and Ekua Holmes (ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Poetry / Freedom Fighter – 2015)

A 2016 Caldecott Honor Book
A 2016 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
A 2016 John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award Winner

Stirring poems and stunning collage illustrations combine to celebrate the life…

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (A) and R. Gregory Christie (ILT)

List Price: $19.99  (Library Binding – Biography Law Enforcement / U.S. Marshall – 2009)

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Chris Barton (A) and Don Tate (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Inventor –  2016)

You know the Super Soaker. It’s one of top twenty toys of all time. And it was invented entirely by accident. Trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, impressive inventor Lonnie…

Katheryn-Russell-Brown (A) and Fran Morrison (ILT)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – Biography / Music / Trombone / Loved Music – 2014)

Melba Doretta Liston loved the sounds of music from as far back as she could remember. As a child, she daydreamed about beats and lyrics, and hummed along with the music from…

Laban Carrick Hill (A) and Theodore Taylor III (ILT)

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover –  Biography / Music / Hip Hop Era – 2013)

Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc.

On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park…

Heather Henson (A) and Bryan Collier ILT)

List Price: $18.99 (Hardcover – Legendary Cave Explorer and Slave -2016)

Grab your lantern and follow the remarkable and world-famous Mammoth Cave explorer—and slave—Stephen Bishop as he guides you through the world’s largest cave system in this remarkable homage to the resilience of human nature.

Welcome…

Vashti Harrison (A and ILT)

Gene Barretta (A) and Frank Morrison (ILT) 

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Sports / Boxing Champ – 2017)

There are themes of hard work, determination, overcoming obstacles, boxing, sports, persistence, and confidence—something Muhammad Ali clearly had plenty of.”*

In this picture book biography of Muhammad Ali, author Gene Barretta and illustrator…

Matt de a Pena (A) and Kadir Nelson (Ilt) 

List Price: $8.99 (Paperback – Biography / Sports Boxing – 2013)

Margot Lee Shetterly (A) and Laura Freeman (ILT) 

List Price: $19.99 (Hardcover – Black Scientists / Save NASA Program -2018)

Based on the New York Times bestselling book and the Academy Award–nominated movie, author Margot Lee Shetterly and illustrator Laura Freeman bring the incredibly inspiring true story of four black women who helped NASA launch men…

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (A) and Christopher Myers (ILT)

List Price: $18.95 (Hardcover – Bio / Artist / Harlem Renaissance – 2015)

Jake Makes a World follows the creative adventures of the young Jacob Lawrence as he finds inspiration in the vibrant colors and characters of his community in Harlem. From his mother’s apartment, where he…

Kathryn Erksine (A) and Charly Parker (ILT)

List Price: $22.50 (Hardcover – South Africa / Singer / Activist – 2017)

Miriam Makeba, a Grammy Award–winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid―a brutal system of segregation similar to American Jim Crow laws. Mama…

Vashti Harrison (A and ILT) 

From the author of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History comes the highly anticipated follow-up, a beautifully illustrated collectible detailing the lives of women creators around the world.

Featuring the true…

Carole Boston Weatherford (A) and Jamey Christoph (ILT) 

List Price: $16.99 (Hardcover – Harlem Renaissance Photographer – 2015)

His white teacher tells her all-black class, You’ll all wind up porters and waiters. What did she know? Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made…

Sandra Neil Wallace (A) and Bryan Collier (ILT) 

List Price: $18.99 ( Hardcover – Artist / Painter – 2018)

2019 Orbis Pictus Book Award Winner

“A visually striking, enlightening picture-book biography.” —Booklist (starred review)

“An absolutely indispensable illustrated biography that will remind readers of all ages that it’s never too late to pursue their…

Kamala Harris (A) and Mechal Renee Roe (ILT)

List Price: $17.99 (Hardcover – Biography / Senator and Presidential Candidate – 2019)

From Senator Kamala Harris comes a picture book with an empowering message: Superheroes are all around us–and if we try, we can all be heroes too. Now a #1 New York…