31 Days, 31 Lists: 2024 Biographies for Kids

The picture book biography is an art that I enjoy in great part thanks to the elasticity of the form. There are myriad ways to approach them. You can tell a life from birth to death. You can focus on a single event in childhood. You can discuss their life around the context of what they invented, wrote, drew, sang, etc. And thanks to innovations in the field, they don’t have to be famous people anymore. You can introduce the world to someone they should have known all along. This year, the biographies were plentiful. This may look like an ample list, and it is, but all thirty of these individuals are just a small slice of the pie that was biography in 2024. Read them in good health.

If you’d like a PDF of today’s list, you can find one here.

Curious about previous years’ biography lists? Then check out what’s come before:

• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016

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2024 Biographies for Kids

Picture Books

As Edward Imagined: A Story of Edward Gorey in Three Acts by Matthew Burgess, ill. Marc Majewski

What can a quiet boy who loves cats and theater do with his life? He can create iconic set designs, incredible illustrations, and books that have captured hearts and minds everywhere. Edward Gorey comes back to life! We need a name for the phenomenon where someone does a nonfiction picture book on a really good subject but the book itself is meh and THEN (a year or two later) someone does another book on the SAME topic but makes it so much better. Cleverly, the editor of this book opted to accompany the text with the art of Marc Majewski, an illustrator whose #1 trait is his artistic ability not to look anything like Edward Gorey at all. I thought that for such a quiet, shy, unassuming guy as Edward (but with distinct panache and flair) this book tapped perfectly into his funny life. The sole flaw in this book? I have it on good authority that Edward never wore socks with his tennis shoes. Otherwise, no notes.

Bridges Instead of Walls: The Story of Mavis Staples by Mavis Staples and Carole Boston Weatherford, ill. Steffi Walthall

Once in a great while a children’s librarian will come face to face with a child asking for an “autobiography” for an assignment. Now there are a couple go-to titles you can turn to (Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, and a handful of others) but I think it’s a good idea to extend your roster if possible. Particularly when you have a book as pretty as Bridges Instead of Walls to consider. Some clever editor decided to pair Ms. Staples with the hardest working woman in show business, Carol Boston Weatherford. That was a smart move, as Weatherford has a tendency to elevate a person’s story from the rote to the sublime. With the art of Steffi Walthall ( a woman who clearly knows what she is doing since her books have a vibrancy others don’t) there is bountiful text here, but it doesn’t FEEL long. Why? Possibly because of the font size (itty bitty, teeny tiny) and possibly because Weatherford knows how to pack a big story in a small package. I found this a more engrossing biography of a musician than I’ve encountered in a while. Weatherford is one of the few authors who can pull off the birth-to-present-day thing (as you’ll see later on this list with her Outspoken Paul Robeson). Plus, I’m sorry but I love it when an illustrator can draw famous people and you recognize those people (Prince looks VERY Prince here and this may well be the very first time I’ve seen Hozier in a children’s book). And just look at that gorgeous backmatter. There’s a Recommended Listening list, a Recommended Viewing list, and a Timeline (so you know they were thinking about teachers when they made this). For an extra bit of fun, flip the book back and forth between the front and back cover. You’ll see why. A class act on every level.   

Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park by Lori Alexander, ill. Jenn Ely

After falling head over heels in love with the Mojave Desert, Minerva Hoyt was determined to help make the Mojave a National Park. Could she do it? An inspiring, amazing story of a female powerhouse. Confession time. I read this book and then sort of discounted it for any lists. But even then, I held onto the book for some reason. And as I continued throughout my week, I just kept on thinking and thinking and thinking about Minerva’s story. This isn’t one of those big, flashy picture book bios out there, but there’s something so incredibly appealing about it. Maybe it’s the fact that this is a woman who fought tooth and nail to preserve a kind of landscape that didn’t slot neatly into our previous understandings of what “nature” entailed. By the way, has anyone else noticed that deserts are having an amazing year in children’s books? Between this, Desert Song and Welcome to the Cactus Hotel we have a very vital and interesting desert-based selection in 2024.

Call Me Roberto! Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos / Llámenme Roberto! Roberto Clemente Alza La Voz Por Los Latinos by Nathalie Alonso, ill. Rudy Gutierrez

The highs and lows of one of the greatest baseball players of all time is told here with a special focus on how Clemente fought racism throughout his whole career. A bio of a hero. Also available in Spanish! I’m always on the lookout for good sports books for kids and the fact that this is illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez is just the icing on the cake. Ms. Alonso takes a slightly different tactic with this Clemente book than, say, all the other Clemente picture book bios that have come out over the years. She doesn’t skimp on the fun baseball details, but at the same time she balances them out expertly with what the man had to go through as a Black Latinx professional ball player living through Jim Crow times. Great writing, beautiful art, and the backmatter is to die for. Previously seen on the Bilingual Books List.

Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! by Claudette Colvin and Phillip Hoose, ill. Bea Jackson

Ah! Another autobiographical picture book! Such rarities. Now I confess that when I first saw this cover, I didn’t pay any attention to who was writing it. And then I literally read the entire book, only realizing what I was reading when I got to the “Note from Phillip Hoose” in the back. Phillip Hoose? You mean the guy who wrote Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice back in 2009 or so? I remember that book well. It was a nonfiction title for older kids, and it marked the very first time I’d ever heard Claudette’s name. Until then I, like a lot of people, just made the assumption that no one had preceded Rosa Parks when it came to the Montgomery bus boycott. Now with a feature-length movie of her life on the horizon, the time just seemed right for there to be a picture book version of her story. Again, Hoose pairs with Colvin with this younger retelling, and there’s a real spark and interest here. I think the choice to select Bea Jackson as illustrator was nigh unto brilliant. She just has this very appealing style, much in the same vein as animation, that makes you want to read on and know more about Claudette. Wouldn’t mind seeing more picture bios from her in the future. This book? Top notch and long overdue. 

Comet Chaser: The True Cinderella Story of Caroline Herschel by Pamela S. Turner, ill. Vivian Mildenberger

Was Caroline Herschel going to be doomed to be her mother’s servant for the rest of her life? Find out how this 18th century woman became the world’s first professional female astronomer in this scintillating tale. This is not the first picture book bio of Caroline Herschel I’ve ever seen, but it may well be the best. I thought the subtitle “The True Cinderella Story” was a bit cheeky, but it’s not actually all that far from the truth. Caroline was pretty much destined for a mostly sucky life, had it not been for her brother’s fondness for her. And not only did she get out of her mom’s clutches, but she managed to become a major scientist in her own right. Turner leans way into the drama of the situation, but you never feel like she’s sensationalizing Caroline’s life. The art’s gorgeous, the backmatter beautifully extensive, and Turner just clinches it all with that final line: “Let whatever shines be noted.” Top notch work!

The Fabulous Fannie Farmer: Kitchen Scientist and America’s Cook by Emma Bland Smith, ill. Susan Reagan

An excellent example of how a subject that could be downright bland in anyone else’s hands shines when the right author has the right attitude. I just found this book so doggone appealing, and darned if I can tell why. Smith tackles Fannie’s life with some serious verve. First she makes it clear just how infuriating it would be to encounter recipes that say things like “a suspicion of nutmeg” (which sounds like a Mystery cozy title more than anything else). Then comes the science. The beautiful beautiful science. And math too, come to think of it! After all, there’s a lot of use of ¼ and ½ cups in the course of this discussion. About the time you’re reading about using the acid in tomatoes to tenderize meat, I was sold. I loved how badass Fanny comes off (self-publishing authors everywhere should rejoice in this story) to say nothing of her business acumen. So fun!

The Fastest Drummer: Clap Your Hands for Viola Smith by Dean Robbins, ill. Susanna Chapman

Born into the family band, Viola Smith was a drummer from the start. Watch and see how for a century she broke barriers and drummed her heart out in this energetic book full of voom and pizzazz! Susanna Chapman is apparently channeling Steven Solerno with this book, and I am here for it. You know, we get a LOT of picture book bios in a given year, so I’m always on the lookout for, quite frankly, the fun ones. The ones that you’d not only enjoy reading, you’d enjoy reading them out loud. I can just imagine a music teacher in an elementary school reading this to a class in some way, and really getting into it. It doesn’t hurt matters that Viola Smith (someone I’d never really heard of before) was amazing. I mean, here we have a lady who was still beating on the drums until she was literally 100 (she lived to be 107). This book (as the cover clearly shows) is also a hoot. It acknowledges the prejudice she faced without lingering on it. And it just seems to be so much fun to have put together. I suspect more than one kid (particularly those who identify as girls) will want to pick up some sticks after reading through this. And extra points for showing how she wasn’t this instant genius but had to learn from other people and work at it.

Fighting With Love: The Legacy of John Lewis by Lesa Cline-Ransome, ill. James E. Ransome

Born into love, raised to do what is right, this biography focuses on the young life of the beloved Civil Rights leader and shows where he got his strength of purpose. A beautiful new telling. I think I like the Ransomes best when they work together rather than separately. This book is a pretty darn great example of what they can accomplish when they work together. It’s an interesting change to James Ransome’s usual style. I always think of him more in terms of paints, but here he’s using “found, painted, and purchased papers with pencil drawing,” which makes for an interesting cut-paper look and feel. There was something about it that felt really nice to me. James dedicates the book to Jerry Pinkney, and I almost feel like he’s doing his own variation on Pinkney’s style with this bio. As for Lesa, she is so good at writing these bios. I think this might be my favorite John Lewis picture book bio yet (and there are a LOT to choose between). It’s really interesting watching her end with that walk over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, mere moment before getting his skull cracked by the waiting police, but it works, man, it works. Love the backmatter too. A great new take on a familiar subject.

Gifts from the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Things We (Don’t) Throw Away by Andrew Larsen, ill. Oriol Vidal

Where does the garbage go when you throw it away? Sometimes, once in a while, it goes in a museum. The story of garbageman Nelson Molina and the incredible collection he accrued.  Love it when I see a new illustrator for the first time. Also love it when a book is a biography and the subject does the Foreword. I’d heard the story of the NYC garbage man who collected objects and created an entire museum out of them, sure, but I thought that this was a really nice telling of his story. Of course, I lived in Manhattan for 11 years and this book has the seasons and the light of the city just DOWN pat. There’s this one shot of Nelson hauling garbage in the winter and the rainy fall that I would seriously frame if I had a print of it. There’s some fake dialogue but since this is approved by Nelson himself, I think it should be fine since this would be from his memory. Certainly worth looking at. 

Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel, ill. April Harrison

There’s something unique about the experience of reading a book about someone you’ve heard about in the past but never had a clear picture of before. When I worked for New York Public Library the name “Augusta Baker” was legendary. She’d retired long before my day (I started in 2003 and she passed away in 1998) but her name was everywhere. We all knew her to be the first Black coordinator of children’s services for New York Public Library. What they didn’t tell us was the sheer amount of good things she got behind. Fortunately we have Breanna J. McDaniel to put all the pieces together, and April Harrison to bring them to life. I mean just look at the cover of this book. This is what I wish we saw a bit more of in our children’s book biographies. A little more creativity and visual metaphors at work. In fact, Harrison is pulling out all the stops on this book. I feel like she was given the go ahead to really lean into her natural inclinations towards gorgeous mixed media. Additionally, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I’d really like to see what April Harrison’s version of Ernie and Bert looked like” your somewhat bizarre wishes have been granted. As a former NYPL employee I also geeked out over a map that appears at one point in the book showing a map of NYC and distinguishing between NYPL, Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Public Library (I won’t be that person who checks to see if the branches seen are accurate to the time period, though I suspect that they are). And I would be amiss in not hat tipping to McDaniel’s form of storytelling as well. This book covers all its bases but doesn’t load you down with details you don’t need. It’s quick, succinct, and smart. Just like Augusta Baker herself, I suppose. 

Marina Abramović Turned Herself Into Art and Wasn’t Sorry by Fausto Gilberti

What happens when you turn yourself into your own art project? View the many performances of Marina Abramović, an artist unafraid to try anything. I adore Gilberti’s books and this is his best since his Banksy bio. I guess I’d heard of various projects by Abramović in the past, but I never connected them to her and I never really knew her name. At the same time, the ding dang book is written in the first person. It’s a literary technique and it doesn’t say anything that Abramović herself didn’t think or say. So I’m willing to give it a pass, since it truly is unique (and I adore that photograph of her at the end). Hardly any backmatter though. *sigh*

Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I.M. Pei by Julie Leung, ill. Yifan Wu

What does it mean to build something that will be around long after you’re gone? The tale of Ioeh Ming Pei and the glorious structures he created comes to vibrant life in this deft biography. It’s always useful to walk into a biography not really knowing anything much about the subject. I’ll confess to you that I never knew that  I.M. Pei designed the glass pyramid above the Louvre. Just knock me over with a feather, why don’t you? I was very impressed by how Leung chose to lay out the life story of Pei in this book. Beginning with the story of the stone farmers just sets the right tone, and then you’re able to go on from there. This just comes off as a particularly seamless bio, complete with world events, highs, lows, and more. There isn’t much discussion of the racism Pei would have faced, which I thought was an interesting choice on the author’s part, but you can’t fault how expertly it touches on all his major accomplishments and sets them in context. A book made with seaming effortlessness.

Motorcycle Queen: The Life of Bessie Stringfield by Janie Havemeyer, ill. Jean Claverie

How do you tell the story of a woman who was the unreliable narrator of her own life? This is by no means the first Bessie Springfield picture book bio, of course. The first, which wasn’t really a straight biography, was Fast Enough (Bessie Stringfield’s First Ride) by Joel Christian Gill. The second, which was much closer, was the rhyming Bessie the Motorcycle Queen by Charles R. Smith. There have been others too, but all of them have to struggle with the difficulty of relying on Bessie’s own stories which, as I may have mentioned before, were often fabricated. What we do know and we can confirm is that she was indeed a motorcycle queen. An Author’s Note at the back covers the other things that we can confirm. Sadly, this book is bereft of backmatter. I would have very much have enjoyed a Bibliography (to say nothing of a Time Line), so be warned that its use in schools will be severely limited. That said, there’s such joy to the art here. French artist Jean Claverie has such fun with the images, really emphasizing the joy Bessie felt on her bike. The book avoids fake dialogue studiously and the storytelling is just so much fun. I gotta say, if Bessie’s story is unfamiliar to you, this is a great place to begin. 

My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story by George Takei, ill. Michelle Lee

What would it feel like if your country went to war and then imprisoned you for no reason? A kid’s-eye-view of living through the Japanese internment camps. I really shouldn’t be surprised that this is good, but I admit that I kind of am. Actors write picture books all the time and only the smallest smidgen of them are decent. Yet Takei had been telling this story already to adults and then later in graphic novel form to teens. I guess it was just a matter of time before he’d make it into a picture book, but I sort of imagined it would be so-so. Instead, he does this really interesting thing where he explains everything in a very kid-friendly manner. You understand this from his very young point of view every step of the way, and I found it extraordinarily effective.

Of Words & Water: The Story of Wilma Dykeman, Writer, Historian, Environmentalist by Shannon Hitchcock, ill. Sophie Page

Told with incredible modelwork and mixed media art, the life of an early environmentalist shines in this moving biography. A book to inspire clean water lovers everywhere. Now Sophie Page is such an eclectic and dazzling illustrator that I had to step back a moment and figure out if I liked this book because of the art alone, or if the text stood on its own. Honestly, I think the latter. Dykeman’s life is placed in the context of the larger environmental movement, and even if you’ve never heard of Silent Spring or why it’s significant that Dykeman’s work came before Carson’s, you’ll understand why her life was important. This is a far simpler picture book biography of a life than we’ve tended to see before, but it’s no less gripping for its brevity. Definitely deserves additional eyeballs.

The Painter and the President: Gilbert Stuart’s Brush with George Washington by Sarah Albee, ill. Stacy Innerst

As one of the leading painters of his day, everyone loved posing for Gilbert Stuart. Everyone, that is, except for George Washington. The true story of what happened when Stuart was asked to paint Washington’s most famous portrait. An author (not the author of this book) sent me this PDF because she thought it would be right up my alley and darned if she wasn’t right. Now right at the opening the book scared me, because it looked like it was leaning heavily on dialogue and I wasn’t sure if it was real. Happily, as an author Albee more than backs up every single direct quote to grace these pages. No fake dialogue here. Whew! The story isn’t one I’d really heard of before, and while this is one of those historical picture books that I’d say wasn’t “plot forward” (if you know what I mean) it gives a lot of context to a time period that too often comes across as unattainable. It’s also just a fun study in personality clashes.

Planting Hope: A Portrait of Photographer Sebastião Salgado by Philip Hoelzel, ill. Renato Alarcão

This story of the boy who grew up in the forests of Brazil, and who went on to photograph the lives and destruction of his fellow humans, shows how his art and his passion for environmentalism came together at last. A gorgeous telling of a life. It would be exceedingly difficult to write a picture book biography about someone like Salgado. How the heck do you write a story about a man who took photographs of people dying of famine and war and not turn it into some kind of white savior story? I think the trick lies in Hoelzel and Alarcão being aligned in their vision of the book. Hoelzel keeps his text respectful and that first photograph Alarcão shows is an image of joy. The story’s interesting too because it does this remarkable shift from the first half of Salgado’s work into the environmental second half. Again, not easy to pull off, but without front-ending it with all that information about his childhood, it wouldn’t work at all. And where the heck has Renato Alarcão been all these years? This art is gorgeous but also really adept. If he’s been making other picture books, please tell me about them. I want to see more of this in the future.

Remembering Rosalind Franklin by Tanya Lee Stone, ill. Gretchen Ellen Powers

There are as many different ways to write a picture book biography as there are people. The trick lies in knowing how to make your book a little more interesting, and a little different from all the others out there (particularly if someone has covered your subject before). The interesting thing about Rosalind Franklin is, of course, the fact that she’s remembered for having her researched used without credit and, in a particularly dick move, getting belittled by jerkwad James Watson. Stone takes particular care to call out Watson in the text of this book, not just the backmatter, and it works because right from the start she makes it clear that what you are about to read is a tragedy. “Dear Reader,” it begins, “This true story doesn’t really have a happy ending.” Franklin takes on a distinctly Elizabeth Orton Jones feel under Powers’ pen which counters Stone’s distinctly acidic takedown of the aforementioned jerkwad. Fortunately, the text of this book carries it far, and should be appreciated by folks studying how to write biographies of people who left behind complicated legacies. A smart bit of writing. Previously seen on the Science and Nature List.

Signs of Hope: The Revolutionary Art of Sister Corita Kent by Mara Rockliff, ill. Melissa Sweet

There’s just something about a nun making art, amiright? If you’re experiencing a bit of deja vu seeing the cover of this book, that may be because you’re flashing back to 2021 and Matthew Burgess/Kara Kramer’s Make Meatballs Sing: The Life and Art of Corita Kent. This book employs a remarkably similar color palette, but that’s less because it’s copying Kramer and more that it’s the same dang palette that Sweet uses for most of her books. I suspect it also matches the art of Kent herself as well. In any case, the two books would pair particularly well together since they tackle Kent’s story from different angles. Where the Burgess text was relatively lengthy, this is shorter, sweeter, and gets pretty quickly to the point. That point, I should say, is the same no matter how you slice it: art is revolutionary. Love the instructions at the end on how to “Make Your Own Finder!” and I adore the long list of sourced quotes. Extra extra points for the “Where to Learn More About Corita Kent” portion as well, which is broken down into five different sections. 

The Soldier’s Friend: Walt Whitman’s Extraordinary Service in the American Civil War by Gary Golio, ill. E.B. Lewis

Sometimes I am most impressed by the picture book works of nonfiction that seemingly do the least. Which is to say, I can’t help but be amazed by the simplest of simple books on difficult topics. When Gary Golio set out to write a moment from Walt Whitman’s life for kids (focusing on his time acting as a friend to the wounded soldiers of the Civil War) he could have done what most authors do and gone loquacious. Instead, the writing here is almost sparse. You’ll never find more than six sentences on a page. To do this, he has to be a bit of a poet himself. Listen to this description of the Civil War: “America – it was everything he believed in. Friendship, equality, and freedom. His poems were love songs to the land and its people. For Walt, America was more than a country. It was a star, shining bright in the world. Only now it seemed to be burning itself up.” It’s quick and succinct and to the point. It doesn’t hurt either that E.B. Lewis does some truly great work here. This particular passage is accompanied by a background that is an American flag with a bullet hole in its center and blood pooling from the red of its stripes at the bottom. Sounds gory. Looks pretty. I suppose there was no natural way to work into the text or the backmatter the fact that Whitman was gay, though any time you have a historical figure with that background I feel like it’s probably a good idea to mention it somewhere. I should note that the backmatter in this book is also surprisingly succinct with a nice big font. Honestly, if you’re a parent or grandparent or educator with a need for large type, this is going to be a happy book to discover. 

The Sole Man: Jan Matzeliger’s Lasting Invention by Shana Keller, ill. Stephen Costanza

Surely I’m not the only person out there who hears the Blues Brothers singing “Soul Man” every time I see this cover. So this is an interesting case of a book. In fact, it makes me mighty grateful to think that we live in an era where a guy like Jan Matzeliger really can get his day in the sun, at least in picture book form. You know how elementary schools often like to do big units on inventors? Well, someone please alert them, one and all, to this title. Keller does a magnificent job of not simply telling us the story of Jan Matzeliger’s life, but also breaks down in an understandable way why, precisely, his invention was so important. Matzeliger was a Black man living in the late 1800s. He was able to not only figure out how to invent a machine that would put the soles onto shoes, but to patent it as well. Unfortunately, he died relatively young of tuberculosis, just six years after he got his patent. That part’s not in the book, I just found him so interesting that I had to know more about him. Now I’m going to dock some significant points for the fake dialogue. Not only was it completely unnecessary but it’s going to keep this book from getting some pretty major awards, which is a pity since it’s fun to read, pretty, and the narrative is broken up so nicely. The book clarifies for kids why patents are so important, and the art of Stephen Costanza is incredible. Though also missing a Bibliography and/or a timeline, there’s still a lot to love in this little biography. Honestly, I usually don’t include books with this little backmatter or fake dialogue usually, but this one’s really rather delightful. 

Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains by Anita Yasuda, ill. Yuko Shimizu

The incredible true story of a woman who never stopped moving. Whether she was scaling mountains or trying to save the environment, Junko Tabei is a hero for our times. I’m peeved I didn’t get a chance to see this before we settled on my library’s 101 Great Books for Kids list because I would have fought HARD for this one (alas, Harper Collins sends relatively few print galleys). First off, I haven’t seen much of Yuko Shimizu’s work since that incredible book The Cat Man of Aleppo. This feels like her triumphant return. The art in this book is thoroughly stunning and the life of Junko Tabei?!? How are there not thirty picture book bios of her instead of just one? It’s like the woman couldn’t stop working! By the time you learn that she climbed a mountain just three months before her death (at the age of 77, thank you very much) you begin to wonder what ELSE she could have done if she’d lived a little longer. This book is a thrilling homage to an incredible person and the environmentalist focus is absolutely fantastic. We don’t hear a lot about how mountain climbers pollute while they’re there (I literally had never heard of the whole poop problem until this book) so this is eye-opening on a number of levels

Vigdis: A Book About the World’s First Female President by Rán Flygenring, translated by Jonas Moody

When we look at the books we get from other nations, we Americans can get darned snobby. I am Patient Zero on this point. Not their fiction so much. I like international fiction for kids. But nonfiction? The thing is, European children’s nonfiction has a sort of loosey-goosey relationship to backmatter that makes my teeth itch. And to be perfectly honest, Flygenring’s picture book biography Vigdis is a textbook example of that. Almost. You see, the author has written three sentences in lieu of backmatter in this book. They read as follows: “The author would like to thank Vigdis herself & her daughter Astridur. Their support and cooperation were essential to bringing this book to life. Also many thanks to Edda Hafsteinsdottir for the idea.” Now, why do I like backmatter so much? Well, mostly because it assures me that the author of the book for children isn’t just making stuff up as they go along. And here, I suppose, we’ve proof positive that the subject of this book read the title and provided the information in it directly. Does that mean it’s going to be weighed heavily in favor of her? I suppose so. And as an ill-informed American (at least when it comes to historical world politics) I couldn’t really tell you what Vigdis Finnbogadóttir’s legacy has been. What little research I did do on her after reading this book makes her out to be even cooler than this title suggests. And the book itself is cool. It’s fun even! The framing sequence is a small child visiting Ms. Finnbogadóttir because they want to do a book on the fact that she was the first woman in the world who was elected president (this is true). If you take the child to be a stand-in for Flygenring herself then it’s not all that fictional a sequence after all. Written in a cartoonish, fun style, the book explores the life of this president and everything she accomplished (like being the first single woman in Iceland to adopt a child). If you weren’t in Vigdis’s camp before reading this title, you certainly will be after. An unusual and highly enjoyable bio. 

World More Beautiful: The Life and Art of Barbara Cooney, by Angela Burke Kunkel, ill. Becca Stadtlander

A lyrical, remarkable examination of what it means to live the life of an artist and how (and when) to make your own rules. When you find a picture book biography of a children’s book author/illustrator you have to be careful not to love it simply because you loved its subject. But I’m not someone who was ever very familiar with Cooney above and beyond Miss Rumphius, and I thought this a stellar title. The writing is downright lyrical, and the art astounding. Somehow, Stadtlander has managed to evoke Cooney without duplicating her work. I’m also highly amused that both Kunkel and Stadtlander worked on different Robert McCloskey picture book bios before they came together on this. Apparently they have a thing for children’s book creators from Maine!

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Older Readers

Born Naughty: My Childhood in China by Jin Wang with Tony Johnston, ill. Anisi Baigude

I’ve a particular penchant for fun stories from the past set in countries all around the globe. The first thing I thought when I laid eyes on Born Naughty was that it might make a nice companion to the graphic novel Little White Duck by Na Liu and illustrated by her husband, Andrés Vera Martínez. When that book came out, one of my Chinese co-workers was so relieved that for once there was a historical work that wasn’t JUST about the Cultural Revolution. I think she’d like this book as well. Jin Wang grew up in Inner Mongolia, and we get to hear all the fun stories of her wild and rambunctious childhood. It’s got everything from being attacked by wild dogs and getting the rabies sucked out by bricks (I ain’t kidding) to beating boys by climbing trees, snot-nosed family portraits, getting your tongue stuck to metal in the winter, and more. Some clever editor knew to pair Wang and Johnston with illustrator Anisi Baigude, who brings a particularly fun feel with her art to the piece. For this reason I would actually recommend that you eschew the audiobook. The art and text are integral to the piece’s success. Definitely a great addition to the genre of girls being wild and having fun genre. 

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix

If you love the Narnia and Lord of the Rings books and want to know the story behind them, look no further! A fascinating dual biography of the best friends who wrote the titles together. This is definitely for the very good readers who peruse our shelves. Honestly, I think this book is ideal not simply for Lord of the Rings and Narnia lovers, but for kids who want to write fantasy. I mean, this is all about the origins of the kinds of fantasy that we love today. Hendrix is one of the very authors I know who can get away with talking about Christianity in non-Christian publisher books, and he does it exceedingly well. This book also does something I haven’t seen since Louis Sachar wrote The Cardturner. He has these long in-depth discussions for older readers that the younger readers can skip if they want to. I’d consider pairing this with Nathan Hale’s Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, since it’s one of the best encapsulations of the inanity of WWI for kids I’ve seen. Previously seen on the Fantasy Book List.

Outspoken Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show by Carole Boston Weatherford, ill. Eric Velasquez

From the moment he was born to the day he died, take this deep dive into the remarkable life of one of America’s great heroes. Activist, actor, athlete, and scholar, there never was, nor will there ever be, anyone quite like Paul Robeson. Dear lord. I swear, you never know what you’re going to get with a Carole Boston Weatherford biography, do you? This is one helluva book, and sort of turns on its head my usual statement about how picture book biographies don’t have to be birth to death. It’s like Weatherford read that and said, “Oh yeah? I am going to show you EVERY aspect of this man’s life!!” I have literally never seen a picture book bio goes this deep into anyone, but if any subject deserved it then it would have to be Paul Robeson. I learned a ton about him here, and the author isn’t afraid to show the controversies that dogged his life either. Also didn’t expect to see an image of someone getting electroshock therapy in a mental institution on my 2024 bingo card, but here we are. I’ve put this in the Nonfiction for Older Readers section for good reason. I think it’s fair to say that you have never read a picture book biography like this. Just be prepared to carve out a little time in your day if you want to read it.

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So with all that in mind, here are the other lists for 2024:

December 1 – Great Board Books

December 2 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 3 – Simple Picture Book Texts

December 4 – Transcendent Holiday Picture Books

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Funny Picture Books

December 7 – CaldeNotts

December 8 – Picture Book Reprints

December 9 – Bilingual Books for Kids

December 10 – Math Books for Kids

December 11 – Books with a Message / Social Emotional Learning

December 12 – Fabulous Photography

December 13 – Translated Picture Books

December 14 – Fairy Tales / Folktales / Religious Tales

December 15 – Wordless Picture Books

December 16 – Poetry Books

December 17 – Unconventional Children’s Books

December 18 – Easy Books & Early Chapter Books

December 19 – Comics & Graphic Novels

December 20 – Older Funny Books

December 21 – Science Fiction Books

December 22 – Fantasy Books

December 23 – Informational Fiction

December 24 – Gross Books

December 25 – Science & Nature Books

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Blueberry Award Contenders (Celebrating the Environment)

December 28 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 29 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

December 30 – Middle Grade Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2024