TRUE STORY PICTURE BOOKS
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Reading and learning about the lives of real people can have such a huge impact on us and our children. It brings so much depth and life to stories that may seem unbelievable. It also allows us to put ourselves into others' shoes and sometimes ask tough questions about what is inside our hearts.
Disclaimer: As always, this list has been created through the lens of Philippians 4:8: "Whatsoever is true, whatsoever is lovely...think on these things". However, I also realize that not all of history was lived through that lens. So with both of these thoughts in mind, I have tried to do my best to choose books that are honoring to God through clean language and respectfulness towards all people. While we may not agree with decisions history makers made or how they lived their lives, we should also remember that we are all sinners in need of God's grace. May we create a God-honoring legacy for our families to remember!
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by Jean Van Leeuwen
This is the story of a young boy who was the first person to ever take flight by doing so in a hot air balloon in Baltimore.
by Donna Jo Napoli
This young, lyrical picture book reveals the adventure and natural wonders that Lewis & Clark encountered on their Western expedition in the early 1800s.
by Rebecca Bond
One hot, dry summer, when Antonio was almost five, disaster struck: a fire rushed through the forest. Everyone ran to the lake-the only safe place in town-and stood knee-deep in water as they watched the fire.
by Sally M. Walker
Fiery Night is a heartwarming, empowering picture book about a little boy's devotion to his pet goat, Willie, and how they gave each other strength during the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.
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by Lydia M. Sigwarth
When Lydia was five years old, she and her family had to leave their home. They hopped from Grandma's house to Aunt Linda's house to Cousin Alice's house, but no place was permanent. Then one day, everything changed.
by Helaine Becker
The bold story of Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician who worked for NASA during the space race.
by Gene Barretta
When George Washington Carver was just a young child, he had a secret: a garden of his own.
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by Ellen Levine
A stirring, dramatic story of a slave, Henry Brown, who mails himself to freedom.
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by Deborah Hopkinson
Clara, a slave and seamstress on Home Plantation, dreams of freedom—not just for herself, but for her family and friends. When she overhears a conversation about the Underground Railroad, she has a flash of inspiration.
by Doreen Rappaport
An unforgettable portrait of the incredible story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who helped her to "see".
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by Linda Marshall
Growing up in London, Beatrix Potter felt the restraints of Victorian times. Girls didn't go to school and weren't expected to work. But she longed to do something important, something that truly mattered.
by Lynn Cox
Here is the incredible story of Elizabeth, a real-life elephant seal who made her home in the Avon River in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.
by Kay Winters
In a tiny log cabin a boy listened with delight to the storytelling of his ma and pa. He traced letters in sand, snow, and dust. He borrowed books and walked miles to bring them back.
by Candace Fleming
When Bronx Zoo-keeper Fred brought home a lion cub, Helen Martini instantly embraced it. The cub's mother lost the instinct to care for him. "Just do for him what you would do with a human baby," Fred suggested...and she did.
by Phyllis Root
Celia Thaxter grew up on a desolate island off the coast of Maine, where her father worked as lighthouse keeper. Amid the white and gray of the sea, the rocks, and even the birds, young Celia found color where she could: green mosses and purple starfish and pink morning glories by the shore.
by Caroline Starr Rose
According to legend, Will Cody (later known as America's greatest showman, Buffalo Bill) rode for the Pony Express at the age of fifteen.
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Here’s the true story of an inventor who so loved nature’s vibrant colors that he found a way to bring the outside world to children – in a bright green box for only a nickel!
by Patricia McCormick
When a group of US Marines fighting in the Korean War found a bedraggled mare, they wondered if she could be trained to as a packhorse. They had no idea that the skinny, underfed horse had one of the biggest and bravest hearts they’d ever known. And one of the biggest appetites!
by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
A flood is coming! When the water climbs to the rooftops, where will everybody go? To Grandma's house, of course, high up on a hill. Before long, the house is full ofpeople, chickens, ducks, pigs, horses, cats, and even a cow. There's only one person missing -- Grandpa!
by Susan Lendroth
Back in the 1880s, when the Old West boomed with the rush for gold and silver, the miners of Calico, California, needed a mail carrier they could count on. And they found him in a Border collie named Dorsey. Based on the true story of the most celebrated canine mail carrier in U.S. history.
by Eliza Wheeler
Six-year-old Marvel, her seven siblings, and their mom must start all over again after their father has died. Deep in the woods of Wisconsin they find a tar-paper shack. It doesn't seem like much of a home, but they soon start seeing what it could be.
by Barbara Cooney
Alice Rumphius longed to travel the world, live in a house by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful. The countless lupines that bloom along the coast of Maine are the legacy of the real Miss Rumphius, the Lupine Lady, who scattered lupine seeds everywhere she went.
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by Gloria Houston
Dorothy's dearest wish is to be a librarian in a fine brick library just like the one she visited when she was small. But her new home in North Carolina has valleys and streams but no libraries, so Miss Dorothy and her neighbors decide to start a bookmobile.
by Flora Delargy
In the middle of the night, the Carpathia received a distress call from the sinking Titanic. The intrepid little ship heroically changed course and headed straight into the frozen sea to help save as many people as it could. Follow the Carpathia as it risks everything to navigate remote, treacherous ice fields in the dark and come to the rescue of passengers on the world-famous ocean liner.
by Natalie Kinsey
In June 1783, three-year-old Sarah Whitcher wanders into the woods and disappears. For three long days, friends and neighbors search fruitlessly for her.
by Elizabeth Spires
Living in the isolated Robbins Reef Lighthouse, overlooking turn-of-the-century New York Harbor, Kate Walker spent her life minding the light, keeping passing ships from running aground on the dangerous shoals.
by James Herriot
His award-winning stories for young readers bring the farmyard world of Herriot's Yorkshire to vibrant life. Featuring a host of adorable animals and colorful townsfolk, each of the stories is narrated by the country vet himself.
by Lindsay Mattick
In 1914, Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian on his way to tend horses in World War I, followed his heart and rescued a baby bear. He named her Winnie.
by Jonathan Bean
In this unique construction book for kids who love tools and trucks, readers join a girl and her family as they pack up their old house in town and set out to build a new one in the country.
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by Margarita Engle
As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. She became famous, so famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the White House!
by Joseph Bruchac
In 1620 an English ship called the Mayflower landed on the shores inhabited by the Pokanoket people, and it was Squanto who welcomed the newcomers and taught them how to survive in the rugged land they called Plymouth.
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by Erin Guendelsberger
Follow Inky the octopus as he escapes from his tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand to the open ocean! Based on a true story, this ocean picture book for children ages 4-7 chronicles the adventure that the real-life Inky might have taken on his escape to freedom.
by Daisy Spedden
A story of a boy, his teddy bear, and their escape the Titanic's sinking, originally told to the boy by his mother shortly after their family's escape from that tragedy, features beautiful illustrations and a fascinating glimpse into the past.
by Chris van Dusen
When a big truck and its big load get stuck on a narrow road, traffic on the little island comes to a halt. Some cars need to go south and some have to travel north. Luckily, the kids come up with an ingenious solution: why not just swap cars?
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by Kathryn Gibbs Davis
Capturing an engineer's creative vision and mind for detail, this fully illustrated picture book biography sheds light on how the American inventor George Ferris defied gravity and seemingly impossible odds to invent the world's most iconic amusement park attraction, the Ferris wheel.
by Carol Otis Hurst
Some people collect stamps. Other people collect coins. Carol Otis Hurst's father collected rocks. Nobody ever thought his obsession would amount to anything. But year after year he kept on collecting, trading, displaying, and labeling his rocks.
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by Barb Rosenstock
On June 6, 1930, engineer Otis Barton and explorer Will Beebe dove into the ocean inside a hollow metal ball of their own invention called the Bathysphere. They knew dozens of things might go wrong. But Otis and Will were determined to become the first people to see what the deep ocean looks like.
by Sophie Blackall
Step inside the dollhouse-like interior of Farmhouse and relish in the daily life of the family that lives there, rendered in impeccable, thrilling detail. Based on a real family and an actual farmhouse where Sophie salvaged facts and artifacts for the making of this spectacular work, page after page bursts with luminous detail and joy.
by Sophia Gholz
​As a boy, Jadav Payeng was distressed by the destruction deforestation and erosion was causing on his island home in India's Brahmaputra River. So he began planting trees. What began as a small thicket of bamboo, grew over the years into 1,300 acre forest filled with native plants and animals.
by Matthew Swanson
When a girl and her family travel four thousand miles from home, it’s not your typical summer vacation. Everything is different on the Alaskan tundra―where the grizzly bears roam and the sockeye salmon swim―including the rules. A girl can do things she wouldn’t, and couldn’t, do at home.
SERIES HIGHLIGHT
Do Great Things for God is a picture book series that focuses on the lives of historical figures who changed the world through their trust in the Lord.
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While the stories mention hard aspects, it is done in a very gentle way that even your littles will be able to listen.
Betty Greene wanted to learn to fly from the age of seven. And with some money given to her by her uncle, thatÂ’s exactly what she did. When World War II started, Betty used her skills to serve with the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
When young Betsey joined a missionary voyage to Hawaii, everyone was shocked. A single woman, who was born enslaved, going to a mission? How extraordinary! But that's exactly who Betsey was an extraordinary girl who believed in an extraordinary God!
In 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and Corrie ten Boom and her family helped to hide as many Jews as possible. Corrie and her sister were caught by the German army and sent to a concentration camp, where God made sure they always had a Bible to read and plenty of opportunities to share the good news about Jesus.
While in her twenties, Gladys Aylward (1902-1970) felt called to serve God in China and enrolled at a missionary school. After failing her exam and being told that she couldn't go, she was eventually given the opportunity by an elderly missionary in China who needed a young woman to help her.
Heroes for Young Readers is another picture book series that focuses on the lives of historical figures.
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With rhyming text and colorful illustrations, these stories are perfect for ages 5 and up. The series is very large and encompasses so many historical people. I am only highlighting a few of the titles.
As a boy, young Jim Elliot dreamed of bringing God's light to exciting and faraway lands. When he grew up, Jim bravely faced both the wonders and the dangers of the South American jungle to share God's love with the feared and isolated Auca people.
When Adoniram Judson discovered for himself that God's love is real and His Word is true, he and his wife, Ann, risked everything to share God's great love with the people of Burma (Myanmar), becoming America's first foreign missionaries.
While working in a cotton mill in Scotland, Mary Slessor longed to be a missionary. When God answered her prayers by calling her to the unreached, often dangerous, tribes of Africa's Calabar region, Mary's faith, courage, steadfastness, and pioneering spirit were a brilliant example of the life and freedom found in Jesus.
In faraway China, despite danger and ridicule Jonathan Goforth and his wife generously opened their home to thousands of Chinese visitors and never tired of telling others that even though we've made ourselves God's enemies, He has made a way for us to be His friends.
The Courageous Series is a beautiful picture book series that focuses on the lives of men who were martyred for Christ.
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The text is gentle and perfect for ages 3-8 years.
The series includes eight titles.
by Voice of the Martyrs
NICHOLAS: GOD'S GIFT-GIVER
PATRICK: GOD'S CAPTIVE
PAUL: GOD'S APOSTLE
STEPHEN: GOD'S WITNESS
THOMAS: GOD'S MISSIONARY
VALENTINE: GOD'S EVANGELIST