About the blog:
The blog, KidLit Celebrates Women’s History Month was founded in 2011, to commemorate Women's History Month across the kidlitosphere, the community of bloggers specializing in children's and young adult literature. This year is the blog’s fifth annual celebration. We hope the blog will serve as both a resource and an inspiration for librarians, educators, and parents, and all who are interested in the intersection of women's history and literature for children and teens.
Why celebrate women's history and children's literature? Not so long ago, women's history was virtually ignored in the K-12 curriculum. To address this situation, “Women’s History Week”was started in California in 1978; the observance became national in 1981 with a joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming National Women’s Week, which was extended a few years later into Women’s History Month. This year's theme for Women's History Month is "Weaving the Stories of Women's Lives."
As stated in the National Women's History Project's webpage,
The stories of women’s achievements are integral to the fabric our history. Learning about women’s tenacity, courage, and creativity throughout the centuries is a tremendous source of strength. Until relatively recently...women’s achievements were often distorted, disdained, and denied. But knowing women’s stories provides essential role models for everyone.We are fortunate to have many resources for our children to learn about women's history, everything from fabulous biographical picture books about remarkable women from the past to historical novels, to fascinating history books written especially for young people. We hope this blog will help you identify some of these resources, learn about new books on women's history, and enjoy reflections by some distinguished authors in the field.
About the organizers:
This fifth annual celebration of Women’s History Month through literature for children and young adults is organized by bloggers Margo Tanenbaum, of The Fourth Musketeer, and Lisa Taylor, of Shelf-employed. Margo, who blogs about historical fiction and history books for young people at The Fourth Musketeer, works as a children's librarian at a suburban Los Angeles-area public library. Lisa lives in New Jersey, where she is a youth services librarian in a county library system. She may be found blogging at Shelf-employed or the ALSC Blog. She is serving on the Association for Library Service to Children's Great Websites for Kids Committee, and has been published in multiple professional journals. Both Lisa and Margo review for School Library Journal and have served as Round Two Cybils judges in the nonfiction categories. Lisa also reviews for AudioFile Magazine.
Please note:
As this is a collective website, the opinions expressed by individuals do not necessarily represent the opinions of all participants. Reviews and comments reflect personal opinions and are for the purpose of promoting women's history books to children. They are not reflective of the opinions of any library or organization or of the participants as a whole.
