International Women’s Day 2025 - Storytime Solidarity

Whether you focus on the UN’s message, or that of IWD, the focus is on women’s equality and empowerment.

Whether they are what would be called an activist, a trailblazer, a rebel – all the women and girls featured in the books below, fought – or are fighting – for rights and / or causes.

That right could be them pursuing their own career goals.

Or, it could be saving the planet.

It could be escaping from slavery.

Or marching in a civil rights protest.

And anything in between.

~ Anne.

Because of the subject matter of many of these books, they aren’t all suitable for preschoolers.

However, they are important to have on our radar, and may be good for school visits.

Equal rights. Equal opportunities. Equal power.

UN Women: For All Women And Girls. Rights.. Equality. Empowerment. United Nations Commemoration of the 50th International Women's Day. The image is of a young woman / teenage girl, dressed in blue with a cap on, with her arms resting on top of a handle of something like a shovel. She seems to be from SouthEast Asia, India for example.

From the UN’s website:

On International Women’s Day (8 March), that is the bold call for action for all women and girls worldwide. As we mark the 30th year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the world is deeply unequal. International Women’s Day is a chance to rise and demand action and to deliver on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to make the world equal and better for everyone.

#ForAllWomenAndGirls.

#AccelerateAction

Happy International Women's Day - with a purple background. Surrounding the words are four circles with illustrations of a woman in each. The women are multicultural, with some in hijab, and some with afros.

From the International Women’s Day website:

Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge gender equality. Collectively for #IWD2025 we can all #AccelerateAction.

International Women’s Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years, as have many of the issues still impacting women’s advancement. Since 1911, IWD belongs to all who care about women’s equality. Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to forge gender parity. All IWD activity is valid, that’s what makes IWD so inclusive.

All International Women’s Day 2025

Megan Rapinoe

Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth

Turning Pages: My Life Story

Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement

Marjory Saves the Everglades: The Story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Swimming Toward a Dream: Yusra Mardini’s Incredible Journey from Refugee to Olympic Swimmer

We Are Water Protectors

Ho’onani: Hula Warrior

Freedom Bird: A Tale of Hope and Courage

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai

Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller

Keep Climbing, Girls

My Little Golden Book About Betty White

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song

Walking in the city with Jane book cover.

Walking in the City with Jane: A Story of Jane Jacobs

Brown Girl, Brown Girl

The Life of / La vida de Pura

Stay Angry, Little Girl

Butterflies Belong Here: A Story of One Idea, Thirty Kids, and a World of Butterflies

Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa

Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman’s Dreams Took Flight

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul

Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote

Emmeline Pankhurst

Book cover of Little Dreamers by Vashti Harrison.

Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx/La juez que creció en el Bronx

The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale

Stitch by Stitch: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom

The Secret World of Hildegard

Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson

You Need to Chill!: A trans pride and acceptance children’s book

Rocket Says Speak Up!

Mary Kom

Cicely Tyson

Jane Goodall

Evonne Goolagong

Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills

Planting Peace: The Story of Wangari Maathai

I Look Up To… Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist

Just Help!: How to Build a Better World

Traveling Shoes: The Story of Willye White, US Olympian and Long Jump Champion

Greta and the Giants

Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers

Amanda Gorman

Marvelous Mabel: Figure Skating Superstar

Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles

Regina Persisted: an Untold Story

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909

How to Build a Hug: Temple Grandin and Her Amazing Squeeze Machine

A Child Like You

Me… Jane

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer

Coretta Scott

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World

The Librarian’s Stories

Grandmother School

We Move the World

Paiute Princess: The Story of Sarah Winnemucca

Players in Pigtails

Mama in Congress: Rashida Tlaib’s Journey to Washington

Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

Her Fearless Run: Kathrine Switzer’s Historic Boston Marathon

I Am Enough

I Am Jazz

Maya’s Song

Freedom Braids

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell

Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story From Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements

Helen Keller: The World in Her Heart

My Name Is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth

Virginia Wouldn’t Slow Down!: The Unstoppable Dr. Apgar and Her Life-Saving Invention

Sewing Stories: Harriet Powers’ Journey from Slave to Artist

The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne

We Want to go to School: The Fight for Disability Rights

Loud and Proud: The Life of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe

Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist

A is for Activist

I am Helen Keller

Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens

Sometimes People March

The Girl Who Heard the Music

Rocket Says Clean Up!

All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything

Mae Among the Stars

Born to Run

Who Says Women Can’t Be Computer Programmers?: The Story of Ada Lovelace

On Her Wings: The Story of Toni Morrison

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

I Look Up To… Serena Williams

The Librarian of Basra

Laverne Cox

Jazz Age Josephine

Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children

Malala’s Magic Pencil

Kate Sheppard: Leading the Way for Women

Change Sings: a Children’s Anthem

Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Fighting for YES!: The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann

Faith Ringgold: Narrating the World in Pattern and Color

This Is Your Time

Book cover of We Want Our Books by Jake Alexander.

We Want Our Books: Rosa’s Fight to Save the Library

Be a Bridge

Light in the Darkness: A Story about How Slaves Learned in Secret

One Girl’s Voice: How Lucy Stone Helped Change the Law of the Land

Sing, Aretha, Sing: Aretha Franklin,”Respect,” and the Civil Rights Movement

My Little Golden Book About Dolly Parton

Wild Horse Annie: Friend of the Mustangs

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia

Child of the Civil Rights Movement

Lift as You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker

Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution

Bessie Smith and the Night Riders

Coretta’s Journey: The Life and Times of Coretta Scott King

Girls with Guts!: The Road to Breaking Barriers and Bashing Records

The Story of Ruby Bridges

Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson

Harriet’s Ruffled Feathers: The Woman Who Saved Millions of Birds

Thanks to Frances Perkins: Fighter for Workers’ Rights

Before She Was Harriet

Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage

The Legendary Miss Lena Horne

Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll

Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet