2025 Blogging A to Z Challenge: History
This was a tricky book list to create because twelve books just isn’t enough to even dive into the thousands millions of years of history that exists. Instead, I chose stories that I found fascinating to learn about and real-life stories of people that lived in the past. Many of these are picture book nonfiction books titles which can open these stories to a wider audience and can introduce kids to sometimes difficult to comprehend historical events.
These are just a few of the many books about history that exist for kids. If you’re looking for an entry point to historical nonfiction, try pulling a few books on a historical event that your child is interested in, or pair up a historical book with a visit to a museum or trip. Or take a look at a calendar and find a day celebrating something of interest, and learn more about it. There are plenty of ways to introduce nonfiction into your reading life, you just have to find the right hook!
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2025 Blogging A to Z Challenge: History
100 Things to Know about History by Jerome Martin, Alex Frith, Laura Cowan, and Minna Lacey, illustrated by Federico Mariani and Parko Polo
Did you know that mammoths and pharaohs walked the earth at the same time? Or that over 30 types of gladiators fought in ancient Rome? This fascinating book is filled with 100 historical facts, bright, infographic-style illustrations, a glossary and index.
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith
A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders. But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.
And the people planted dreams and hope,
willed themselves to keep
living, living.
And the people learned new words
for love, for friend, for family
for joy, for grow, for home.
With powerful verse and striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, Born on the Water provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.
Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone
World War II is raging, and thousands of American soldiers are fighting overseas against the injustices brought on by Hitler. Back on the home front, discrimination against African Americans plays out as much on Main Street as in the military. Tanya Lee Stone examines the little-known history of the Triple Nickles, America’s first black paratroopers, who fought in an attack on the American West by the Japanese. The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, in the words of First Sergeant Walter Morris, “proved that the color of a man had nothing to do with his ability.”
Hidden Figures Young Readers’ Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly
Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.
This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, who lived through the Civil Rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.
King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim, illustrated by Cindy Kang
In 15th-century Korea, King Sejong was distressed. The complicated Chinese characters used for reading and writing meant only rich, educated people could read―and that was just the way they wanted it. But King Sejong thought all Koreans should be able to read and write, so he worked in secret for years to create a new Korean alphabet. King Sejong’s strong leadership and determination to bring equality to his country make his 600-year-old story as relevant as ever.
Long-Armed Ludy and the First Women’s Olympics by Jean L. S. Patrick, illustrated by Adam Gustavson
Lucile “Ludy” Godbold was six feet tall and skinnier than a Carolina pine and an exceptional athlete. In her final year on the track team at Winthrop College in South Carolina, Ludy tried the shot put and she made that iron ball sail with her long, skinny arms. But when Ludy qualified for the first Women’s Olympics in 1922, Ludy had no money to go.
Thanks to the help of her college and classmates, Ludy traveled to Paris and won the gold medal with more than a foot to spare. Hooray for Ludy!
Based on a true story about a little-known athlete and a unique event in women’s sports history.
Pizza! A Slice of History by Greg Pizzoli
Do YOU like PIZZA? Because right now, somewhere in the world, someone is eating it. Did you know that in the United States we eat 350 slices of pizza every second? Or that in Sweden they serve pizza with bananas and peanuts? All over the world, people love pizza—but where did it come from? And who made the first pizza?
Sakamoto’s Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory by Julie Abery, illustrated by Chris Sasaki
The inspirational and little-known story of a dedicated teacher who coached Hawaiian swimmers all the way to the Olympics, beautifully told in simple rhyme.
When the children of workers on a 1930s Maui sugar plantation were chased away from playing in the nearby irrigation ditches, local science teacher Soichi Sakamoto had an idea. He offered to take responsibility for the children ― and then he began training them how to swim. Using his science background, Sakamoto devised his own innovative coaching techniques: he developed a strict practice regime for the kids, building their strength and endurance by using the ditch water’s natural current. The children worked hard under the dedicated Sakamoto’s guidance, and their skills improved. They formed a swim club and began to dominate in swimming events around the world. And then one day, the proud Sakamoto saw an impossible dream come true ― Olympic gold!
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
When her family moved to the town of Westminster, California, young Sylvia Mendez was excited about enrolling in her neighborhood school. But she and her brothers were turned away and told they had to attend the Mexican school instead.
Sylvia could not understand why—she was an American citizen who spoke perfect English. Why were the children of Mexican families forced to attend a separate school?
Unable to get a satisfactory answer from the school board, the Mendez family decided to take matters into its own hands and organized a lawsuit. In the end, the Mendez family’s efforts helped bring an end to segregated schooling in California in 1947, seven years before the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in schools across America.
Spies, Code Breakers, and Secret Agents: A World War II Book for Kids by Carole P. Roman
Discover World War 2’s hidden heroes and villains. Spies, Code Breakers, and Secret Agents explores the intriguing world of spycraft and shows you what goes on behind the scenes in war.
From spy schools and ciphers to sneaky tools and secret armies, this guide takes you on a declassified tour of the undercover operations that helped decide the outcome of World War 2. There’s also more than a dozen short spy-ographies that cover some of the most famous (and infamous!) agents that were active during the war.
This Bridge Will Not Be Gray by Dave Eggers, illustrated by Tucker Nichols
In this delightfully original take on nonfiction, bestselling author Dave Eggers tackles one of the most famous architectural and natural monuments in the world: the Golden Gate Bridge. Cut-paper illustrations by Tucker Nichols ensures that this book feels like a special object, and the revised edition includes real-life letters from constituents making the case for keeping the bridge orange. The narrative’s sly humor makes the topic perfectly accessible for kids enthusiastic about nonfiction. This one-of-a-kind book transports readers to the glorious Golden Gate, no matter where they live.
Unspeakable: The Tusla Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper
In the early 1900s, Tulsa, Oklahoma, was home to a thriving African American community. The Greenwood District had its own school system, libraries, churches, restaurants, post office, movie theaters, and more. But all that would change in the course of two terrible, unspeakable days.
On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a mob of armed white Tulsans attacked Greenwood. They looted homes and businesses and burned them to the ground as Black families fled. The police did nothing to protect Greenwood, and as many as three hundred African Americans were killed. More than eight thousand were left homeless.
News of the Tulsa Race Massacre―one of the worst incidents of racial violence in US history―was largely suppressed, and no official investigation occurred for seventy-five years.
2025 is my tenth year participating in the Blogging A to Z Challenge! This year, I chose as my theme: Fact Finders Club: Nonfiction for Curious Kids with a focus on providing book lists focused on all types of nonfiction books for readers from birth to teens. Each letter of the alphabet will focus on different topics and will provide twelve titles on each list. Nonfiction is having a heyday in children’s literature and if you think it’s dry and boring, then I implore you to take a look at these amazing suggestions! Stop by daily to check out the new books and other posts that I’ll be sharing in April.
