Picture books pack a punch for the whole family. Yes, even your teenagers! The beautiful illustrations and text with rich vocabulary targets a wide age range which is especially good for larger families. With picture books, you gain a great overview of a topic in a very short amount of time. Plus, if something or someone particularly peaks your interest, now you have a springboard from which to find more books on that topic.
Since summer is quickly approaching, I have compiled a list of 30 picture book biographies of influential Americans, most likely many of whom you have never heard of before. Head to your local library or the Amazon links below and choose which people of American History you most want your family to learn about this summer. From artists to architects, authors to library advocates, computer programmers to female firefighters, and inventors to scientists almost all fields of interest are covered!
Below you will find the biographies listed in chronological order and divided into women and men. Enjoy your summer read aloud time!
For more picture book biographies please see this post on the Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire books and this post on Kadir Nelson’s books.
