Children's books and activities

Heroes and Superheroes

Many kids are fascinated by superheroes, with their extraordinary powers and awesome adventures. We also celebrate the lives of real-life heroes — athletes, artists, activists, and government leaders — role models who stood up for what's right and fair. We've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and websites for learning all about heroes and superheroes.

Try pairing fiction with nonfiction books and exploring different genres (like poetry and biographies) and formats (like graphic novels and audio books). You'll be creating your own "text sets" — collections of texts focused on a specific topic, such as heroes and superheroes. Reading widely in this way helps children build background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

You may also want to explore the books and hands-on activities featured in our guide, Meet the Trailblazers: Remarkable Men and Women of Color Who Helped to Shape our World.

 

Heroes and Superheroes

Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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A Is for Activist

By:
Innosanto Nagara

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Awesome Dawson

By:
Chris Dall

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909

By:
Michelle Markell
Illustrated by: Melissa Sweet

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Helpers in Your Neighborhood

By:
Shira Evans

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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John Henry

By:
Julius Lester
Illustrated by: Jerry Pinkney

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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More Than Anything Else

By:
Marie Bradby
Illustrated by: Chris K. Soentpiet

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights

By:
Jo Kittinger
Illustrated by: Steven Walker

Age Level: 3-6 years old

cover of "Tasty Baby Belly Button" showing a dog and girl with a sword

Tasty Baby Belly Buttons

By:
Judy Sierra
Illustrated by: Meilo So

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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The Impossible Patriotism Project

By:
Linda Skeers
Illustrated by: Ard Hoyt

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson

By:
David Adler
Illustrated by: Robert Casilla

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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A Picture Book of Jesse Owens

By:
David Adler
Illustrated by: Robert Casilla

Age Level: 6-9 years old

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.

By:
David Adler
Illustrated by: Robert Casilla

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Abe's Honest Words

By:
Doreen Rappaport
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Annie and Helen

By:
Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrated by: Raul Colon

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy US Marshall

By:
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Illustrated by: Gregory Christie

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote

By:
Kirsten Gillibrand
Illustrated by: Moira Kalman

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe

By:
Don Brown

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Captain America Joins the Mighty Avengers

By:
Rich Thomas

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story

By:
Joseph Bruchac
Illustrated by: Liz Amini-Holmes

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Tale

By:
Robert San Souci
Illustrated by: Brian Pinkney

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Daring Dozen: The Twelve Who Walked on the Moon

By:
Suzanne Slade
Illustrated by: Alan Marks

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Elizabeth Started All the Trouble

By:
Doreen Rappaport
Illustrated by: Matt Faulkner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up

By:
Matthew Reinhart
, Robert Sabuda
Illustrated by: Robert Sabuda

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Family Is a Superpower

By:
Michael Dahl
Illustrated by: Omar Lozano

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table

By:
Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrated by: Eric-Shabazz Larkin

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Fight of the Century: Alice Paul Battles Woodrow Wilson for the Vote

By:
Barb Rosenstock
Illustrated by: Sarah Green

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh

By:
Robert Burleigh
Illustrated by: Mike Wimmer

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Float Like a Butterfly

By:
Ntozake Shange
Illustrated by: Edel Rodriguez

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

By:
Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Jerome Lagarrigue

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Go for the Moon: A Rocket, a Boy, and the First Moon Landing

By:
Chris Gall

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Grandad Mandela

By:
Zazi Mandela
, Ziwelene Mandela
, Zondwa Mandela
Illustrated by: Sean Qualls

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Greta and the Giants

By:
Zoe Tucker
Illustrated by: Zoe Persico

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Harvesting Hope: The Story of César Chávez

By:
Kathleen Krull
Illustrated by: Yuyi Morales

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Hold the Flag High: The True Story of the First Black Medal of Honor Winner

By:
Catherine Clinton
Illustrated by: Shane Evans

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark

By:
Debbie Levy
Illustrated by: Elizabeth Baddeley

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Ida B. Wells at her typewriter in illustrated book cover

Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth

By:
Michelle Duster
Illustrated by: Laura Freeman

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told

By:
Walter Dean Myers
Illustrated by: Bonnie Christensen

Age Level: 6-9 years old

John Henry: An American Legend

By:
Ezra Jack Keats

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters

By:
Andrea Pinkney
Illustrated by: Stephen Alcorn

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes

By:
Jarrett Krosoczka
Illustrated by: Jarrett Krosoczka

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Magic Pickle

By:
Scott Morse

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Malala's Magic Pencil

By:
Malala Yousafzai
Illustrated by: Kerascoët

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Malala: Activist for Girls' Education

By:
Raphaële Frier
Illustrated by: Aurelia Fronty

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

By:
Doreen Rappaport
Illustrated by: Bryan Collier

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Meet the Marvel Super Heroes

By:
Scott Peterson

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School

By:
Janet Halfmann
Illustrated by: Landon Ladd

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman

By:
Alan Schroeder
Illustrated by: Jerry Pinkney

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Molly, by Golly! The Legend of Molly Williams, America's First Female Firefighter

By:
Dianne Ochiltree
Illustrated by: Kathleen Kemly

Age Level: 6-9 years old

My Name Is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth

By:
Ann Turner
Illustrated by: James Ransome

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters

By:
Barack Obama
Illustrated by: Loren Long

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott

By:
Dee Romito
Illustrated by: Laura Freeman

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Preaching to the Chickens: the Story of Young John Lewis

By:
Jabari Asim
Illustrated by: E.B. Lewis

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World

By:
Laurie Lawlor
Illustrated by: Laura Beingessner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Seed by Seed: The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman

By:
Esme Raji Codell
Illustrated by: Lynne Rae Perkins

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World

By:
Susan Hood

Age Level: 6-9 years old

She Persisted: Harriet Tubman

By:
Andrea Davis Pinkney
Illustrated by: Gillian Flint

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Side by Side: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez / /Lado a Lado: La Historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez

By:
Monica Brown
Illustrated by: Joe Cepeda

Age Level: 6-9 years old

illustrated cover of "Sidekicks" showing animals in superhero costumes

Sidekicks

By:
Dan Santat

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride

By:
Andrea Pinkney
, Brian Pinkney

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx / La juez que crecio en el Bronx

By:
Jonah Winter
Illustrated by: Edel Rodriguez

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Stealing Home: Jackie Robinson Against the Odds

By:
Robert Burleigh

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Superhero School

By:
Aaron Reynolds
Illustrated by: Andy Rash

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Susan B. Anthony

By:
Alexandra Wallner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

By:
Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrated by: James Ransome

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Thanks to Frances Perkins: Fighter for Workers' Rights

By:
Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrated by: Kristy Caldwell

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "The Adventures of Sparrowboy" showing young boy with his hands on his hips

The Adventures of Sparrowboy

By:
Brian Pinkney

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "The Boy Who Harnesses the Wind" sowing boy and a windmill

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

By:
William Kamkwamba
, Bryan Mealer
Illustrated by: Elizabeth Zunon

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial

By:
Susan E. Goodman
Illustrated by: E.B. Lewis

Age Level: 6-9 years old

The House That Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams

By:
Tanya Lee Stone
Illustrated by: Kathryn Brown

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Incredible Life of Balto

By:
Meghan McCarthy

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Mighty 12: Superheroes of Greek Myth

By:
Charles Smith
Illustrated by: P. Craig Russell

Age Level: 6-9 years old

The Story of Harriet Tubman

By:
Christine Platt

Age Level: 6-9 years old

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist

By:
Cynthia Levinson
Illustrated by: Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Thunder Rose

By:
Jerdine Nolan
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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What Lincoln Said

By:
Sarah Thomson
Illustrated by: James Ransome

Age Level: 6-9 years old

William Still and His Freedom Stories

By:
Don Tate

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "Wings" showing boy flying with white wings

Wings

By:
Christopher Myers

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass

By:
Lesa Cline-Ransome
Illustrated by: James Ransome

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Young Zeus

By:
G. Brian Karas

Age Level: 6-9 years old

illustrated cover of "Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash" showing boy in swim goggles

Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash

By:
Jacqueline Jules
Illustrated by: Miguel Benitez

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Takes Off

By:
Jacqueline Jules
Illustrated by: Miguel Benitez

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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""

12 Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali

By:
Charles R. Smith, Jr.
Illustrated by: Bryan Collier

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights that Changed America

By:
Russell Freedman

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony

By:
Nikki Grimes
Illustrated by: Michele Wood

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Civil Rights Pioneer: A Story About Mary Church Terrell

By:
Gwenyth Swain
Illustrated by: Ellen Beier

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Coretta Scott King: I Kept on Marching

By:
Kathleen Krull

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Dream Big Dreams: Photographs from Barack Obama's Inspiring and Historic Presidency

By:
Pete Souza

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Finish the Fight! The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote

By:
Veronica Chambers
Staff of the
, New York Times

Age Level: 9-12 years old

For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai's Story

By:
Rebecca Langston-George
Illustrated by: Janna Bock

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Henry Aaron's Dream

By:
Matt Tavares

Age Level: 9-12 years old

History Smashers: Women's Right to Vote

By:
Kate Messner
Illustrated by: Dylan Meconis

Age Level: 9-12 years old

How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea

By:
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Illustrated by: Ziyue Chen

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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I Am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography of a Hero

By:
Brad Meltzer

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Independent Dames: What You Never Knew about the Women and Girls of the American Revolution

By:
Laurie Halse Anderson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Lives: Poems About Famous Americans

By:
Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by: Leslie Staub

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Illustrated cover of Lost In Outer Space showing spaceship and debris in space.

Lost in Outer Space: The Incredible Journey of Apollo 13

By:
Tod Olson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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March: Book One

By:
John Lewis
, Andrew Aydin
Illustrated by: Nater Powell

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

By:
Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag

By:
Rob Sanders
Illustrated by: Steven Salerno

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

By:
Loki Mulholland
Illustrated by: Charlotta Janssen

Age Level: 9-12 years old

The Breadwinner

By:
Deborah Ellis

Age Level: 9-12 years old

The Escape of Robert Smalls: A Daring Voyage Out of Slavery

By:
Jehan Jones-Radgowski
Illustrated by: Poppy Kang

Age Level: 9-12 years old

The Hero's Trail

By:
T.A. Barron

Age Level: 9-12 years old

The Undefeated

By:
Kwame Alexander
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

cover  of "The Wright Brothers" showing photo of Wright brothers' plane

The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane

By:
Russell Freedman

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer

By:
Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Ekua Holmes

Age Level: 9-12 years old

We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History

By:
Philip Hoose

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Words That Built a Nation: Voices of Democracy That Have Shaped America’s History

By:
Marilyn Miller
Illustrated by: Ellen Scordato

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist

By:
Philip Dray
Illustrated by: Stephen Alcorn

Age Level: 9-12 years old