Friday Feature: Women's History Month/Women Who Shook the World!

March is Women's History Month and while I'm not teaching this specifically with classes I do have three remarkable books that shouldn't go unnoticed.  I've used this timeline with 3rd grade students as we create a black history structure of our own and that is where I noticed the Women's History Timeline-what a great biography resource tool.

Here are three groundbreaking women:

1. Mind Your Manners, Alice Roosevelt written by Leslie Kimmelman; ill. by Adam Gustavson (2009)

I love this book as much as I love Alice Roosevelt!  She is a fascinating character, filled with spunk and gumption.   This book chronicles Alice's adventures as her father tries to tame her.  It makes use of speech bubbles to add to its charm-not overdone as too many speech bubbles make it difficult to read aloud.  Find this or order it and enjoy learning more about Alice's life.  The illustrations are bright and colorful and some almost jump right off the page, especially the snake under the table illustration.    "The secret of eternal youth is arrested development.” ~Alice Roosevelt

2. Rachel; The Story of Rachel Carson by Amy Ehrlich; ill. by Wendell Minor (2003)

This one is not a read aloud length unless a teacher read it in parts but the Ehrlich's story is well-written and would be great for 4th-and 5th grade biographies.  Maybe because I'm such a nature freak myself I love the illustrations in this book as much I enjoyed learning more about Carson's life.  She was interested in writing at an early age and actually had a story published in a magazine at the age of 11.  It wasn't until she attended college at Pennsylvania College for Women that she found her love of biology.  Carson, with her love of nature, connected the idea of all things being interrelated, a web of life. "If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life."~ Rachel Carson   
Read more about Rachel here.

3. Wangari's Trees of Peace; A True Story of Africa by Jeanette Winter (2008)

Wangari's story, one of peace and justice, that I loved hearing about when it first hit the news-one women making a difference in her home country of Kenya.  Wangari studied in America as a young adult and noticed big changes when she retuned to Africa.   Trees had been overharvested , birds no longer sang and crops were scarce.  She begins by planting nine trees in her own backyard, plants many in an open space tree nursery and eventually hands them out to the village women.  This is a woman,  still living, still doing, still campaigning- a great lesson for us all.  There is much too do!  "We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own-indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder." ~Wangari Maathai  The Green Belt Movement-for more information.

What about you?  Do you have any amazing books you are featuring for Women's History Month?  Doing any groundbreaking yourself?