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.
Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Print List
A Is for Activist
By: Innosanto Nagara
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Each spread presents a letter and a bit of social commentary urging children to take a stand...
Awesome Dawson
By: Chris Dall
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909
By: Michelle Markell
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Helpers in Your Neighborhood
By: Shira Evans
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Get to know the everyday heroes in your community! From firefighters to teachers, mail carriers...
John Henry
By: Julius Lester
Age Level: 3-6 years old
John Henry's talent was evident at an early age when he helped his daddy, but was cemented...
More Than Anything Else
By: Marie Bradby
Age Level: 3-6 years old
More than anything else, young Booker T. Washington wanted to read. This fictionalized account...
Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights
By: Jo Kittinger
Age Level: 3-6 years old
No one knew that when "Bus #2857 rolled off the assembly line in 1948 ... [that it] would...
Tasty Baby Belly Buttons
By: Judy Sierra
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Uriko is small but brave, determined, and smart. In fact, she saves the town’s children when...
The Impossible Patriotism Project
By: Linda Skeers
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Caleb's class is making projects that represent patriotism but Caleb can't think of a way to...
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Print List
A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A portrait of a true American sports hero, Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American...
A Picture Book of Jesse Owens
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Born in 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up to become a civil rights leader whose philosophy...
Abe's Honest Words
By: Doreen Rappaport
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
A straightforward overview of Lincoln's life is punctuated by Lincoln's words and...
Annie and Helen
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy US Marshall
By: Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Formerly enslaved in the 19th century, Bass Reeves escaped Texas and lived with Indians. It was...
Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote
By: Kirsten Gillibrand
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Here are the stories of 10 leaders who strove to win the right to vote for American women--a...
Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe
By: Don Brown
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Jim Thorpe's childhood was a mix of hard work in the outdoors and a succession of military-...
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
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
During World War II, Chester was recruited by the US Marines to use the Navajo language to...
Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Tale
By: Robert San Souci
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
From the Northeast to the West, the United States is filled with stories of wise, strong, and...
Daring Dozen: The Twelve Who Walked on the Moon
By: Suzanne Slade
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Spare, poetic text and luminous, realistic illustrations chronicle the Apollo missions....
Elizabeth Started All the Trouble
By: Doreen Rappaport
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Women could not attend college, enter politics or vote when the United States was established....
Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up
By: Matthew Reinhart, Robert Sabuda
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Six beautifully illustrated full-page spreads, each including a dramatic paper-sculpture...
Family Is a Superpower
By: Michael Dahl
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have many extraordinary abilities, but their greatest...
Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table
By: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Martin shares the remarkable life story of former professional basketball player Will Allen,...
Fight of the Century: Alice Paul Battles Woodrow Wilson for the Vote
By: Barb Rosenstock
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
When Woodrow Wilson was elected President, he didn't know that he would be participating in one...
Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh
By: Robert Burleigh
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Charles Lindbergh was only 25 years old when he made his historic non-stop flight across the...
Float Like a Butterfly
By: Ntozake Shange
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Visually stunning and informative, Ali’s early life, how it influenced him, as well as his many...
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
A girl and her mom want to have a sweet treat on a hot day but cannot sit at the soda fountain...
Go for the Moon: A Rocket, a Boy, and the First Moon Landing
By: Chris Gall
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
A boy looking out his bedroom window into the night sky begins, “The moon is out tonight. In the...
Grandad Mandela
By: Zazi Mandela, Ziwelene Mandela, Zondwa Mandela
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Zazi and Ziwelene’s great-grandad is called Nelson Mandela. Once day, they ask their grandmother...
Greta and the Giants
By: Zoe Tucker
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
This picture book retells the story of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg—the Swedish...
Harvesting Hope: The Story of César Chávez
By: Kathleen Krull
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Hold the Flag High: The True Story of the First Black Medal of Honor Winner
By: Catherine Clinton
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The story of the first Black Medal of Freedom winner and a stirring account of one of the most...
I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark
By: Debbie Levy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent a lifetime disagreeing: disagreeing with...
Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth
By: Michelle Duster
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Ida B. Wells was an educator, journalist, feminist, businesswoman, newspaper owner, public...
Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told
By: Walter Dean Myers
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Ida B. Wells worked bravely as an activist, educator, writer, journalist, suffragette, and...
John Henry: An American Legend
By: Ezra Jack Keats
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
John Henry was born to be a hero – strong, competitive and determined. The legendary steel-...
Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
By: Andrea Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Brief sketches of the lives of both well-known (for example, Harriet Tubman) and lesser known...
Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes
By: Jarrett Krosoczka
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Magic Pickle
By: Scott Morse
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Sophisticated readers will appreciate the over-the-top adventures of a cryogenic pickle that...
Malala's Magic Pencil
By: Malala Yousafzai
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Malala's first picture book will inspire young readers everywhere to find the magic all around...
Malala: Activist for Girls' Education
By: Raphaële Frier
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Malala’s story is one of the resilience that comes from strong conviction. It is told through a...
Martin's Big Words: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By: Doreen Rappaport
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Martin Luther King Jr. grew up fascinated by big words. He would later go on to use these words...
Meet the Marvel Super Heroes
By: Scott Peterson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School
By: Janet Halfmann
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Lilly Ann Granderson,, who was enslaved, secretly learned to read and write as a child and...
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman
By: Alan Schroeder
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Molly, by Golly! The Legend of Molly Williams, America's First Female Firefighter
By: Dianne Ochiltree
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Williams was a cook for New York City's volunteer Fire Company 11 in the early 1800s. When a...
My Name Is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth
By: Ann Turner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery but she would not remain enslaved. Instead, she took the...
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
By: Barack Obama
Age Level: 6-9 years old
In this tender letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to...
Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott
By: Dee Romito
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The life story of Georgia Gilmore, a woman whose pies and delicious homemade cooking helped...
Preaching to the Chickens: the Story of Young John Lewis
By: Jabari Asim
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
As a child, John Lewis always practiced his deep religious convictions, even with his much loved...
Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World
By: Laurie Lawlor
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Rachel Carson was a shy child, always drawn to nature. She grew up to become a professional...
Seed by Seed: The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman
By: Esme Raji Codell
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, changed his world "seed by seed, deed by deed"...
Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World
By: Susan Hood
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
This book of poems introduces fourteen revolutionary young women—each paired with a noteworthy...
She Persisted: Harriet Tubman
By: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Born enslaved, Harriet Tubman rose up to become one of the most successful, determined and well-...
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
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
This bilingual book pairs the dual stories of powerful activists César Chávez and Dolores Huerta...
Sidekicks
By: Dan Santat
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride
By: Andrea Pinkney, Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Lively language and energetic illustrations create a memorable portrait of a woman who was to...
Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx / La juez que crecio en el Bronx
By: Jonah Winter
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Poverty didn’t stop this girl from working hard, reading lots of books, and graduating top in...
Stealing Home: Jackie Robinson Against the Odds
By: Robert Burleigh
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Lush, realistic illustrations combine with a simple text to suggest what it must have been like...
Superhero School
By: Aaron Reynolds
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Leonard is disappointed in superhero school; the only thing his teacher, The Blue Tornado, talks...
Susan B. Anthony
By: Alexandra Wallner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Susan B. Anthony lived and worked as a teacher when women were paid less for the same jobs...
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Clara is born into slavery but learns an important skill when she becomes a seamstress. Her...
Thanks to Frances Perkins: Fighter for Workers' Rights
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
After Frances Perkins witnessed the Triangle Waist Factory fire in 1911, she decided to work to...
The Adventures of Sparrowboy
By: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Mild-mannered paperboy Henry collides with a sparrow and turns into Sparrowboy just like his...
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
By: William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
Age Level: 6-9 years old
When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops...
The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial
By: Susan E. Goodman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
More than a century before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Roberts v. City of Boston....
The House That Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams
By: Tanya Lee Stone
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The story of Jane Addams who transformed a poor neighborhood in Chicago by opening up her house...
The Incredible Life of Balto
By: Meghan McCarthy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A dog saved the people of Nome, Alaska in 1925 when a sled team was the only way to fetch...
The Mighty 12: Superheroes of Greek Myth
By: Charles Smith
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Greek gods and goddesses are the stuff of contemporary superheroes. Dramatic full-color,...
The Story of Harriet Tubman
By: Christine Platt
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Explore how Harriet Tubman went from being an enslaved person on a plantation in Maryland to one...
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist
By: Cynthia Levinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Audrey Faye Hendricks was confident and bold and brave as can be, and hers is the remarkable and...
Thunder Rose
By: Jerdine Nolan
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
In this tall tale, Thunder Rose vows to grow up to be more than just big and strong,...
What Lincoln Said
By: Sarah Thomson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Lincoln's own words punctuate this overview of his life and times including lighter moments...
William Still and His Freedom Stories
By: Don Tate
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
William Still was the youngest child of parents who escaped slavery and went on to become the...
Wings
By: Christopher Myers
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Stunning, bold collage illustrations carry the action in this reworking of the traditional Greek...
Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass
By: Lesa Cline-Ransome
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Young Zeus
By: G. Brian Karas
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash
By: Jacqueline Jules
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Freddie Ramos' super running and jumping powers and his confidence disappear after the loss of...
Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Takes Off
By: Jacqueline Jules
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Product Description: One day Freddie Ramos comes home from school and finds a strange box just...
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Print List
12 Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali
By: Charles R. Smith, Jr.
Age Level: 9-12 years old
From the moment a fired-up teenager won 1960 Olympic gold to the day when a retired legend...
Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights that Changed America
By: Russell Freedman
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Fifty years ago well-known civil rights leaders came together with other lesser known but key...
Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony
By: Nikki Grimes
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Underground Railroad “conductor” Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, a staunch proponent of...
Civil Rights Pioneer: A Story About Mary Church Terrell
By: Gwenyth Swain
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Terrell worked to gain equal rights for herself and other African Americans, and is best-known...
Coretta Scott King: I Kept on Marching
By: Kathleen Krull
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Before she married Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott was known for her beautiful singing voice...
Dream Big Dreams: Photographs from Barack Obama's Inspiring and Historic Presidency
By: Pete Souza
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
With behind-the-scenes anecdotes of some iconic photos alongside photos with his family,...
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
Nonfiction
Who was at the forefront of women's right to vote? What about so many others from diverse...
For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai's Story
By: Rebecca Langston-George
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
A straightforward, illustrated narration tells the story of the brave Pakistani girl who fought...
Henry Aaron's Dream
By: Matt Tavares
Age Level: 9-12 years old
In spite of growing up in the 1940s before the United States was integrated, in a segregated...
History Smashers: Women's Right to Vote
By: Kate Messner
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Susan B. Anthony wasn't even alive when the 19th Amendment was ratified. The truth is, it took...
How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea
By: Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in America with this story of the little-...
I Am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography of a Hero
By: Brad Meltzer
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
The life of the man whose name is associated with nonviolent protest is presented in graphic...
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
This fact and fun-filled look at female contributions to the American Revolution provides a...
Lives: Poems About Famous Americans
By: Lee Bennett Hopkins
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Well-known figures in American history are presented by diverse poets in a range of styles,...
Lost in Outer Space: The Incredible Journey of Apollo 13
By: Tod Olson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
From "Houston, we've had a problem" to the final tense moments at Mission Control, Lost in Outer...
March: Book One
By: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin
Age Level: 9-12 years old
John Lewis, son of a sharecropper, grew up to become an activist and later, a U.S. Congressman....
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag
By: Rob Sanders
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Have you ever wondered where the rainbow flag comes from? It all began with the first openly gay...
She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
By: Loki Mulholland
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Early experiences brought the inequality of America into focus for young Joan, a white...
The Breadwinner
By: Deborah Ellis
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Eleven-year-old Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in...
The Escape of Robert Smalls: A Daring Voyage Out of Slavery
By: Jehan Jones-Radgowski
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
In the midst of the deadly U.S. Civil War, an enslaved man named Robert Smalls was about to...
The Hero's Trail
By: T.A. Barron
Age Level: 9-12 years old
What is a hero? Using the metaphor of a hiking trail, this book showcases the great variety of...
The Undefeated
By: Kwame Alexander
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
This poem is a love letter to black life in the U.S. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of...
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane
By: Russell Freedman
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Using excerpts from Wilbur's and Orville's journals and letters, young readers will find a...
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer
By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Stirring poems and vibrant collage illustrations combine to celebrate the life of Fannie Lou...
We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History
By: Philip Hoose
Age Level: 9-12 years old
From the boys who sailed with Columbus to today's young activists, this unique book brings to...
Words That Built a Nation: Voices of Democracy That Have Shaped America’s History
By: Marilyn Miller
Age Level: 9-12 years old
From the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address to the 2015 Supreme Court ruling on same-sex...
Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist
By: Philip Dray
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Journalist Ida B. Wells faces the greatest challenge of her life as a tireless crusader for...
Hands-on Activities
Build on what you're learning together through books with these family-friendly activities, experiments, and crafts.
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American History Cards: Black Heroes
Education.com -
Cardboard Swords
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Comic-Themed Wallet
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Design a Mission Patch
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Dragon Hunter Goggles
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Heroes: Fighting for Voting Rights
Start with a Book -
Suffragists Trading Cards
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt -
Super Hero Bracelets
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Superhero Cape
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Votes for Women Game
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt -
Wizard Wand
Summer Writing
Give kids a chance to flex their writing muscles all summer long. Try one of these prompts, selected from our writing contest archives and other literacy organizations.
Great Websites for Kids
Dive deeper into topics of interest with these media-rich and interactive sites.
Great Podcasts for Kids
Listen and learn with these podcasts especially for kids. These podcasts are free and easy to listen to from any device via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher — or from Listen Notes, a podcast search engine.
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In Memory: Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls -
Invisibility vs Flying
Brains On!
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On the Shoulders of Giants
Code Switch
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Rebel Girls
Educational Apps
Educational apps recommended by Common Sense Media and other trusted reviewers.
More Themed Resources
Growing Readers Tip Sheets
Simple activities for parents and kids to do together to build reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Read online or print the PDF.
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Five Literacy-Based Ways to Celebrate Earth Day
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
Graphic Novels for Young Kids
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
Science vs. Science Fiction
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
The Importance of Reading Widely
Download PDF: English | Spanish
Our Summer Blog
Washington DC for Kids
