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!
Evolutionary time frames mentioned.
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.
Little Boy and Girl:
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Paul Galdone, originally born in Budapest, Hungary and later moving at the age of 14 to New Jersey lived from 1907-1986. Perhaps best known for his retelling and illustrating of classic fairy tales, he also illustrated nearly all of Eve Titus’ book series on Basil the Detective for which he won a Caldecott Award. Read more about Mr. Galdone in his short autobiography 
Jerry Pinkney and Paul Galdone are two children’s book illustrators that are staples in our home and two that you should know as well. Do you have favorites of these gentleman’s books? Happy and beautiful reading!
