I love it when I find phenomenal nonfiction picture books that tell the story of some amazing person who overcame obstacles and still achieved their dreams. We own a few of these, but recently I discovered more to add to the mix.
1. A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
This one was one of my favorites. Horace Pippin is a black American painter. He grew up painting, but he grew up poor and had limited resources he could use to pursue his passion. This book tells the story of how he got his first paint set: sending off to an old mail-order contest. It tells of Horace’s growing up and going off to war, and then it tells about how he was shot in his right arm and lost the ability to paint.
For a while, Horace did hard labor, after marrying a woman he met upon his return to the states. But the art would not leave him, and, eventually, he taught himself how to hold a brush with his right hand but use his left hand to guide his right hand’s painting.
It’s an incredible story of wonder and imagination and hope and overcoming all the odds. It’s inspiring for kids to not only read about people who overcame odds like a man who lost the use of a painting arm and still produced some of the greatest art we have in history today, but it’s also valuable for them to learn about people who overcome poverty to become who they dreamed they’d be. Horace Pippin was a great man whose story will surely live on in the hearts of the children who read about him.
2. Abe Lincoln: The boy who loved books, by Kay Winters and Nancy Carpenter.
This is a book I got for my 9-year-old, who always has his nose stuck in a book, one Christmas. It tells the story of Abraham Lincoln, who started as a poor boy and became one of the most beloved presidents in American history. The story is told lyrically and beautifully, with references to books and the knowledge that books can give you threaded throughout. Lincoln’s peaceful and honest nature was also emphasized through a story about a fight with another man and another story about Lincoln chasing down a customer to give them the change they forgot to take at the end of a transaction.
My boys ask to hear this story all the time. It’s another inspiring read for children who wonder what they have to offer the world.
3. Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova, written by Laurel Snyder and illustrated by Julie Morstad.
This is another nonfiction book that was written lyrically and with beautiful pictures. It captivated my boys, though it was a story about ballet. But Pavlova is another story of poverty-to-brilliance and overcoming overwhelming obstacles. The book tells of how Pavlova was, at first, not quite accepted as a true ballerina because she was too thin and she could not dance on her toes as she should. But Pavlova overcame those objections to become one of the most celebrated dancers in our history.
The book follows Pavlova from the time she was a little girl, hanging clothes on the laundry line for her mother, to when she danced her last dance and died. Kids will love this book not only for the gorgeous illustrations but also for the theme threaded throughout: that people may doubt you, but you have the last call on who you become.
4. Enormous Smallness: A story of E.E. Cummings, written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Kris Li Giacomo.
Enormous Smallness is a nonfiction picture book that is very dear to my heart—mostly because e.e. cummings is one of my favorite poets.
Cummings, unlike the characters in the other stories, grew up in a well-to-do family, but he, too, was often overlooked as simply a “dreamer,” a boy who could not focus. No one knew the greatness that lived in him, though his parents understood it. There were stories of his mother writing down his early poems and his father letting Cummings ride his back to bed, asking Cummings to elaborate on the world they were traversing through.
The book included several of Cummings’s most popular poems, which I thought was fantastic. I’m always in favor of introducing my boys to the beauty of poetry, and this was a great way to do it.
5. Me…Jane, by Patrick McDonnell.
This book was a fantastic read about the life of Jane Goodall. It spanned her childhood, when even then she was highly interested in animals and the natural world. The illustrations were quirky and delightful, some of them containing animals, some of them containing field notes that Jane would pen when she was out in the natural world.
What I liked most about this one was that there was a personal note from Jane Goodall in the back of the book. Goodall urged her readers to become advocates for the natural world and the preservation of wildlife and natural resources. I found it incredibly inspiring, and as I read her message to my boys, I could already see their wheels turning. They loved to think that they could possibly make a differences in preserving the animals they already love.
6. On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein, written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky.
This was a book that told of Albert Einstein from the time he was born to the time he was an old man. In a charming and endearing way, it highlighted the eccentricities of one of the greatest American minds to ever live. Any kid who has ever felt different or weird or discouraged by their seeming limitations will find this book a great relief. Einstein did not speak when he passed his second birthday. He lived in his head, where great questions swirled. His parents loved him unconditionally, and Einstein was able to overcome himself and achieve what no man had ever achieved at that time.
At the end of the book, there is a picture of Einstein strutting through his town where other people walk. The text says: “In the town where he lived, he became known for wandering around, deep in thought. Sometimes eating an ice cream cone. Always recognizable by his long, wild hair, which by then had become quite white.” There’s the Einstein we know, that strange and brilliant mind. My boys found this picture humorous and entertaining.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the dedication page, where the author wrote, “To the next Einstein, who is probably a child now.”
These books are all fantastic reads that introduce kids, through both lyrical and sometimes humorous text and beautiful illustrations, to some of the most inspirational stories in history. My boys are already asking to read more nonfiction picture books, because they, like most people, are inspired by the stories of real people. It’s important for kids to know the stories of hard work and grit that live in the people whose names they learn in science or writing or mathematics or history or, even, dance. Picture books telling those stories are the perfect way to nurture their interest in something real and true. I found these books to be a wonderful place to start.
