In honor of Women’s History Month, we’ve selected titles focusing on the lives of women and girls throughout the past and into the present day. We hope these selections serve to educate and encourage a dialogue on topics of women’s history, rights, and stories.


Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson

Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission–they’re sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women’s Rights Club. They post their work online–poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine’s response to the racial microaggressions she experiences–and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices–and those of other young women–to be heard.

Available formats: Books, Ebook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)

 

 

 


Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas

When Malena Rosario’s home is destroyed by Hurricane María, she and her mother are now stuck in Florida. When she goes to school bra-less after a bad sunburn she is humiliated by the school administration into covering up. Ruby McAllister has a reputation as her school’s outspoken feminist rebel, so when Ruby notices the new girl is being forced to cover up her chest, she is not willing to keep quiet about it. Neither Malena nor Ruby expected to be the leaders of the school’s dress code rebellion, but they want to stand up for their ideals and–ultimately–for themselves.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)

 

 

 


Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed

Told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of familial burdens and cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.

Available formats: Book, Audibook (Hoopla), Ebook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)

 

 

 

 

 


Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit by Colby Cedar Smith

Mary lives in a tiny apartment with her immigrant parents, her brothers, and her twin sister, and she questions why her parents ever came to America. She yearns for true love, to own her own business, and to be an independent, modern American woman–much to the chagrin of her parents, who want her to be a “good Greek girl.” Mary’s story is peppered with flashbacks to her parents’ childhoods in Greece and northern France; their stories connect with Mary as they address issues of arranged marriage, learning about independence, and yearning to grow beyond one’s own culture.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla), Audiobook (Hoopla)

 

 

 


Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

By the time she was seventeen, Artemisia Gentileschi was one of Rome’s most talented painters, even if no one knew her name. But Rome in 1610 was a city where men took what they wanted from women, and in the aftermath of rape Artemisia faced another terrible choice: a life of silence or a life of truth, no matter the cost. McCullough weaves Artemisia’s heartbreaking story with the stories of the ancient heroines, Susanna and Judith, who become not only the subjects of two of Artemisia’s most famous paintings but sources of strength as she battles to paint a woman’s timeless truth in the face of unspeakable and all-too-familiar violence.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (OverDrive by Media On Demand), Audiobook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)

 

 

 


When You Ask Me Where I’m Going by Jasmin Kaur

The six sections of the book explore what it means to be a young woman living in a world that doesn’t always hear her. Telling the story of Kiran as she flees a history of trauma and raises her daughter, Sahaara, while living undocumented in North America. Delving into current cultural conversations including sexual assault, mental health, feminism, and immigration, this narrative of resilience, healing, empowerment, and love will galvanize readers to fight for what is right in their world.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla), Ebook (OverDrive by Media On Demand), Audiobook (Hoopla)

 

 

 

 


I Could Not Do Otherwise: The Remarkable Life of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker by Sara L Latta

As a teenager, Mary Edwards Walker determined she would no longer wear the confining corsets and long skirts society dictated women wear at the time and instead opted for pants with a short skirt, setting the stage for her lifelong controversial efforts to change expectations. One of the first women to earn a degree in medicine, Walker championed women’s rights, social justice, and access to health care. She became a Civil War surgeon and a spy, who was captured and arrested by the Confederacy, and she is still the only woman to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla)

 

 

 


The Woman all Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life by Amy Butler Greenfield

Elizebeth Smith Friedman had a rare talent for spotting patterns and solving puzzles. She originally came to code breaking through her love for Shakespeare when she was hired by an eccentric millionaire to prove that Shakespeare’s plays had secret messages in them. Within a year, she had learned so much about code breaking that she was a star in the making. She went on to play a major role decoding messages during WWI and WWII and also for the Coast Guard’s war against smugglers. Elizebeth became the top code-breaking team in the US, and she did it all at a time when most women weren’t welcome in the workforce.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall by Heather Demetrios

A spirited biography of the most dangerous Allied spies, Virginia Hall. She went behind enemy lines and became a spy for the British where she helped arm and train the French Resistance and organized sabotage missions. There was just one problem: The Butcher of Lyon, a notorious Gestapo commander, was after her. Find out how a girl who was a pirate in the school play, spent her childhood summers milking goats, and rocked it on the hockey field becomes the Gestapo’s most wanted spy.

Available formats: Book, Audiobook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)

 

 

 


On Top of Glass: My Stories as a Queer Girl in Figure Skating by Karina Manta

Karina Manta has had a busy few years: Not only did she capture the hearts of many with her fan-favorite performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she also became the first female figure skater on Team USA to come out as queer. But this isn’t just a story about her queerness. It’s also a story about her struggle with body image in a sport that prizes delicate femininity. It’s a story about panic attacks, and first crushes, and all the crushes that followed, and it’s a story about growing up, feeling different than everybody around her and then realizing that everyone else felt different too.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement by Nadya Okamoto

Throughout history, periods have been hidden from the public. They’re taboo. They’re embarrassing. They’re gross. And due to a crumbling or nonexistent national sex ed program, they are misunderstood. Because of these stigmas, a status quo has been established to exclude people who menstruate from the seat at the decision-making table, creating discriminations like the tampon tax, medicines that favor male biology, and more. Period Power aims to explain what menstruation is, shed light on the stigmas and resulting biases, and create a strategy to end the silence and prompt conversation about periods.

Available formats: Book, Audiobook (OverDrive by Media On Demand)

 

 

 


The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World by Lucinda Robb

The women’s suffrage movement was decades in the making and came with many harsh setbacks. But it resulted in a permanent victory: women’s right to vote. How did the suffragists do it? One hundred years later, an eye-opening look at their playbook shows that some of their strategies seem oddly familiar. From moments of inspiration to some of the movement’s darker aspects–including the racism of some suffragist leaders, violence against picketers, and hunger strikes in jail–this unique melding of seminal history and smart tactics is sure to capture the attention of activists-in-the-making today.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


History vs Women: The Defiant Lives That They Don’t Want You to Know by Anita Sarkeesian

Looking through the ages and across the globe, Anita Sarkeesian, has reclaimed the stories of twenty-five remarkable women who dared to defy history and change the world around them. From Mongolian wrestlers to Chinese pirates, Native American ballerinas to Egyptian scientists, Japanese novelists to British Prime Ministers. Featuring beautiful full-color illustrations of each woman and a bold graphic design, this nonfiction title tells the true stories of phenomenal women from around the world and insight into how their lives and accomplishments impacted both their societies and our own.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First US Women’s Olympic Basketball Team by Andrew Maraniss

Twenty years before women’s soccer became an Olympic sport and two decades before the formation of the WNBA, the ’76 US women’s basketball team laid the foundation for the incredible rise of women’s sports in America. Though they were unknown from small schools, the ’76 Olympics team included a roster of players who would go on to become some of the most legendary figures in the history of basketball. Packed with black-and-white photos and thoroughly researched details about the beginnings of US women’s basketball, Inaugural Ballers is the fascinating story of the women who paved the way for girls everywhere.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion

As their communities were being destroyed, groups of Jewish women and teenage girls across Poland began transforming Jewish youth groups into resistance factions. These “ghetto girls” helped build systems of underground bunkers, paid off the Gestapo, and bombed German train lines. At the center of the book is eighteen-year-old Renia Kukielka, who traveled across her war-torn country as a weapons smuggler and messenger. Other women who joined the cause served as armed fighters, spies, and saboteurs, all risking their lives for their missions. It follows the women through arrests, internment, and for a lucky few, into the late 20th century and beyond.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


Gamer Girls: 25 Women Who Built the Video Game Industry by Mary Kenney

Discover the women behind the video games we love — the iconic games they created, the genres they invented, the studios and companies they built — and how they changed the industry forever. Women have always made video games, from the 1960s and the first-of-its-kind, projector-based Sumerian Game to the blockbuster Uncharted games that defined the early 2000s. Women have been behind the writing, design, scores, and engines that power one of the most influential industries out there. In Gamer Girls, now you can explore the stories of 25 of those women.

Available formats: Book

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