My daughter is my mini-me. She spends her days drawing and writing books. When I say she writes books, I means she truly is crafting books just like I did when I used to create slightly plagiarized versions of Beatrix Potter’s stories. She folds and staples the pages together to make the cover and pages for the inside of her latest title. Maybe “Fitz Learns to Swim” or “The Lost Tea Cup,” which have been two of her latest endeavors. You can imagine her excitement when I bought her these.
And so, I think it’s important to encourage her imagination not just with quality art products and quality literature, but also the stories of women who’ve gone on before her. Women who were once girls and were equally enchanted by stories and scribbled away with ink and feathered pens.
So today, I’m rounding up some of my favorite picture books about literary ladies to share with you, just in case you have your own authoress in the making.
Agatha Christie (Little People Big Dreams series) by Isabel Sanchez Vegara
The Little People, Big Dreams series is delightful and I was so pleased to find Agatha Christie’s biography included. We discover how she became something of an expert at poisons (as a nurse during W.W. I) and how she came to develop her famous sleuths, Poirot and Miss Marple.
Lucy Maud Montgomery by Alexandra Wallner
When Montgomery rediscovers an old manuscript that she had tucked into a hatbox, little does she know it will be the making of her career. Anne of Green Gables is such a favorite book and TV series it’s wonderful for kids to find out the “story behind the story” and where the idea came from, as well as more about Montgomery’s life.
Alabama Spitfire: The Story of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird by Bethany Hegedus
Harper Lee is somewhat of a literary mystery. She withdrew from any sort of publicity after To Kill A Mockingbird and kept to herself the rest of her life. I really enjoyed this picture book and the wonderful illustrations. I didn’t realize how much the characters mirrored her own life. My favorite little tidbit the book shares is that Lee and Truman Capote, as children, took turns dictating stories to each other while the other typed them out.
Ordinary Extraordinary Jane Austen by Deborah Hopkinson
Deborah Hopkinson is the queen of biographical picture books, so you will find more than one title by her on this list. This new book about the life of Jane Austen is made even more charming by the ink and watercolor illustrations of Qin Leng.
Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton by Sherri Duskey Rinker
My boys loved all of Virginia Lee Burton’s books when they were little. Anything that had big machines in it inspired interest. Also, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel was one of the first books we bought them, because it was also one of the few picture book my husband remembers and loved. This a lovely whimsical story that shares how Burton’s two boys inspired her interest in picture book writing. I had no idea she was already an accomplished artist and dancer too!
Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of the Borrowed Guinea Pig by Deborah Hopkinson (Not pictured)
Before Beatrix was a famous children’s book author she was just a girl who loved to draw animals. Charmingly told, this is the mostly true story of how she borrowed an guinea pig and it all went terribly wrong.
Good post