Skip to main content
  • Tags: persistence
Fighting for yes! The story of disability rights activist Judith Heumann
Cocca-Leffler, Maryann
Judy Heumann always hears NO from a young age. She is not allowed to attend public school because she is in a wheelchair. Then after she goes to a special school with special education students, she attends college to become a teacher. But even the New York Board of Education says NO to her becoming a teacher after she earns her teaching degree. Judy joins several other disability rights activists to ensure Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 could be signed into federal law. Their work lays the foundation for the Americans with Disabilities Act. As a living advocate for herself and others, Judy tells her story of civil rights for which she fought tirelessly. By leading and working together with others to fix problems and make changes, disabled people now have less discrimination against them.

Lizzie demands a seat! Elizabeth Jennings fights for streetcar rights
Anderson, Beth
One hundred years before Rosa Parks took her stand, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Jennings tried to board a streetcar in New York City on her way to church. Though there were plenty of empty seats, she was denied entry, assaulted, and threatened all because of her race -- even though New York was a free state at that time. Lizzie decided to fight back. She told her story, took her case to court -- where future president Chester Arthur represented her -- and won! Her victory was the first recorded in the fight for equal rights on public transportation, and Lizzie's case set a precedent.

My wiggly smile
Woodruff, Amira
Olive wakes up one day and finds that she has a loose tooth! She runs downstairs to tell her parents and keeps wiggling it all day, but it won't come out! At school, Olive talks to a girl named Jordan who tells her about the "My Wiggly Smile" which says to keep track of the teeth she's lost. When Olive gets home, her dad surprises her with a "My Wiggly Smile" book of her own, and they leave for the dentist where Olive's tooth is finally pulled by the dentist. That night, while she is fast asleep, the Tooth Fairy comes to visit Olive, and she wakes up with a gift under her pillow!

Loose tooth
Schaefer, Lola
A young boy wakes up and realizes he has a loose tooth. He wiggles the tooth and shows his mom, dad, sister, brother, and dog, but it won't fall out. He tries to eat hard food or have his brother yank it out with a wrench, but the tooth finally comes out all on its own!

Betsy who cried wolf
Levine, Gail Carson
An eight year old girl has been taught to call out, wolf! whenever she sees one too close to her sleep. However, everytime she hollers, he disappears and no one listens. Betsy finds her own way to protect the sheep and makes a friend too.

What planet are you from, Clarice Bean?
Child, Lauren
Clarice Bean is having a hard time coming up with an idea for her project on the environment. To make matters worse, she is paired up with her tag-along neighbor, Robert Granger. Her situation looks hopeless until her brother becomes an ecowarrior in an effort to free the tree from being cut down in their neighborhood. Robert and Clarice become ecowarriors themselves, saving the tree and their project.

Ruby's wish
Bridges, Shirin Yim
Ruby is known for wearing red and being an exceptionally bright student. Even during a time in China when ...most girls were never taught to read and write. However, Ruby's grandfather hires a teacher to come to the house, making it possible for any grandchild living in the house to learn. This initiates a desire in Ruby to attend university, a place that women in China were not encouraged to go.\r\n*Based on a true story of the author's grandmother.

The chocolate-covered-cookie tantrum
Blumenthal, Deborah
As Sophie walks home from the park with her mother, she sees another little girl eating a chocolate-covered-cookie. Sophie's mother does not have any cookies to give her and will not allow Sophie to eat cookies so close to supper time. Sophie is outraged and throws a temper tantrum! Sophie learns that not eating a cookie before supper isn't so bad after all.

Doodler doodling
Gelman, Rita
A girl ponders what she will draw on her lined paper with her multicolored pen. She draws people in action. The girl mixes and changes the actions of the people in her drawings. She is proud of her drawings.

Tap-dance fever
Brisson, Pat
Annabelle Applegate had Tap-dance fever. Her feet are constantly on the move, tapping everywhere she goes. The townsfolk are very aggrevated by her dancing. However, once tourists come to hear and see her tao-dance with the rattlesnakes, the townsfolk believe she was an asset to the community.

The greatest potatoes
Stowell, Penelope
Cornelius Vanderbilt sets out on a mission to find the best potato dish ever. He travels around and finds none that are good enough. Vanderbilt goes to Cary Moon's Restaurant, where George Crum is the head chef. Crum makes many dishes that Vanderbilt does not like. Crum decides to make the potatoes so crispy and salty, so he will not like them. Vanderbilt loves them and that is how the potato chip is invented.

Amelia to zora
Chin-Lee, Cynthia
Explore in an alphabet formula, biographies that examine different successes and triumphs of famous women in history from Amelia Earhart to Zora Neale.

Allie's basketball dream
Barber, Barbara
Allie loves basketball, but she is often the only girl on the court. Buddy and other boys tease Allie about playing basketball. Allie believes in her ability and keeps practicing so that one day she can be better at basketball than the boys!

Ella takes the cake
D'Amico, Carmela & D'Amico, Steven
There's nothing more that Ella wants than to be a good helper. Ella can't help but feel inadequate when her mother won't let her help with a lot of the bakery chores because they're dangerous. When Mr. Banjo forgets an important delivery ,though, Ella proves herself by saving the day...and the cake.

Shoo, fly guy
Arnold, Tedd
Fly guy comes home to find that Buzz is on a picnic with his parents. Fly guy is hungry, so he decides to find his family's picnic location by searching for his favorite brown, oozy, lumpy, smelly food. After coming across many food thatfit part of the decription, he finally find his favorite food and the picnic.

Dancing in the wings
Allen, Debbie
Sassy uses her unique characteristics and height to become a great ballet dancer. Sassy does not allow bullying from the other students to prevent her from trying out for a summer dance festival. Sassy learns the benefits of perseverence and self-esteem.

Clink Clank Clunk
Aroner, Miriam
Rabbit is taking a trip into town and is kind enough to pick up nine friends along the way. Much to his dismay, Rabbit's car begins to fall apart more and more with each friend that gets in! With a little teamwork and persistence though, the ten make it safely to town where Rabbit buys a new car.

Wish come true cat
Scamell, Ragnhild
The unlikely answer to a wish is a scruffy old cat that has to win the heart of a little girl. It takes a cold snowy day to make his wish come true.

Can you hear the sea?
Cumberbatch, Judy
Sarah's grandpa gives her a special shell and says if she listens carefully she can hear the sea, but all she hears are every day village noises.

Ant and honey bee: What a pair!
McDonald, Megan
Ant and Honey Bee use their friendship to create a two-things-that-go-together pair of costumes for Cricket's party. As it starts to rain on the walk to Cricket's house, what will happen to Ant and Honey Bees costumes?

Start saving Henry
Carlson, Nancy
Henry gets $5 every week for his allowance, but he spends it immediately on something that catches his eye. One day he sees Super Robot Dude, but his mother won't buy it for him and tells him he has to save his allowance. Whenever Henry is close to $30, something happens to make him lose his money again. One day, his grandma has a surprise for Henry, and he learns that working hard to save money will pay off in the end!

The fox and the hen
Battut, Eric
Henrietta Hen lays her first egg, but she doesn't know what it is. Red Fox comes along and asks to trade her egg for a nice juicy work and she agrees. The other animals help Henrietta realize her mistake, so they each try to offer something valuable to trade for Red Fox's egg. When the animals solve the problem with one final idea, Henrietta goes home to find a little yellow chick. Coming out of her original egg.

Roy makes a car: Based on a story collected by Zora Neale Hurston
Lyons, Mary
Roy Tyle is known around town as the best mechanic in Florida. Roy makes it his mission to create a car that will be accident proof. No one in the town believes him, but Roy proves them wrong time and time again. Roy's creativity and perseverance leads to the making of the best cars in the area.

Zorina ballerina
Gianni, Enzo
Zorina is considered too young to dance with the other elephants at the circus. The clowns, realizing how much Zorina wants to dance, teaches her. Modoc, the star elephant, becomes sick from eating too many peanuts. Zorina surprises everyone and dances so well that she becomes a star.

The minstrel and the dragon-pup
Sutcliff, Rosemary
A ministrel finds a dragon-pup egg on a beach and adopts it after it hatches. The minstrel raises the dragon-pup, Lucky, until he is stolen. Due to Lucky's absence, the minstrel's songs suffer until he is once again united with Lucky.

We keep a pig in the parlor
Bloom, Suzanne
A very persistent pig tries to escape from his pig pen everyday by going to great lengths to be free. The owners finally give up and keep the pig in their parlor.

Rabbit moon
Rowe, John
Albert, an old rabbit, does not sleep well so he finds nightly comfort in gazing at the moon. One night, Albert does not see the moon, so he takes full responsibility for putting the moon back into the sky, once he finds it. Can Albert really do this?

Wilma unlimited
Krull, Kathleen
As a young girl, Wilma Rudolph contracted polio. Through hard work, she is able to walk without her leg brace. She plays basketball in high school, goes to college on a track scholarship, and wins three gold medals in the 100, 200, and 4x100 meter dashes.

Tops and bottoms
Stevens, Janet
Hare and Bear decide to become business partners. Due to Bear's laziness, Hare tricks him three times. This is a great book because it shows children proper eating habits (with vegetables), and it provides a moral.

Trouble at the mines
Rappaport, Doreen
With the help of Mother Jones, a famous leader, the miners go on strike to fight for better working conditions and wages. Rosie's family struggles to survive the eight-month strike. The persistant women and miners force the owners to give in, and the strike ends with victory.

Squids will be squids: Fresh morsels,beastly fables
Scieszka, Jon//Smith, Lane
The moral of the story changes with every page depending upon the fable, the ani keeping his talent to himself, he decides to go out into the forest to sing. What he finds is no one believes a frog can sing, so frog has to keep going until someone gives him a chance.

The frog who wanted to be a singer
Goss, Linda
Frog wants to do something no frog has ever done before; sing!He practices and practices until he gets so tired of keeping his talent to himself, he decides to go out into the forest to sing. What he finds is no one believes a frog can sing, so frog has to keep going until someone gives him a chance.

Yard sale
Stevenson, James
The animals of Mud Flat are having a yard sale. Items in the sale include a broken clock, an old footstool, and half an accordion. At the end of the day everyone is happy with their purchases.

The golden goose
Brooke, L. Leslie
A man's son, Simpleton, goes into the forest to cut wood. In the woods, he runs into a little man who gives him a golden goose with several wishes. Simpleton uses his new luck to benefit himself and lives happily ever after.

Now I will never leave the dinner table
Martin, Jane Read//Marx, Patricia
Patty Jane's older sister Joy is perfect in everyway. She even likes to prepare and eat spinach. Patty Jane, however, refuses to eat spinach. Joy will not let Patty Jane leave the table until she eats a bite of spinach. In protest, Patty Jane plots how to make Joy leave the house.

The perfect christmas picture
Manushkin, Fran
Mr. Green tries very hard to get the perfect Christmas picture but can't seem to get one. He realizes that the best picture is them being themselves.

Power and glory
Rodda, Emily
For his birthday, a young boy gets a video game and keeps playing until he wins.

Bunny cakes
Wells, Rosemary
Young Max and his older sister Ruby are making cakes for their grandmother's birthday. Max adds ingredients for his cake to the shopping list, but the grocer doesn't know what it says until Max thinks to draw a picture of what he wants.

Can you dance, dalila?
Kroll, Virginia
Dalila tries many different forms of dance, but it isn't until she dances in response to her own feelings that she truly becomes a star.

The little princess
Burnett, Frances Hodge
Young Sara is forced to attend Miss Minchin's select seminary for young girls in London when her father gets shipped off to war. Miss Minchin, the director of the seminary becomes a bit apprehensive about Sara's stay with them because her father said that she is to have the very best of everything. When a note arrives that says Sara's father died, things change for the worse. Poor Sara is forced to live the life of a slave. She eventually meets up with an Indian gentleman who helps her to gain her life back.

Anthony's father
Elmer, Irene
Anthony's father is a magician. Anthony tells his teacher and class that he wants to be a magician too. The class does not believe in magic, so Anthony is determined to prove to them that he can do it. He makes dragons grow right in front of their eyes, but they are unable to see the dragons because they do not believe.

Hugh can do
Armstrong, Jennifer
Hugh is an orphan who wants to go to the city to make his fortune. Even though he encounters many obstacles, he pushes on and makes it to the city.

Grandmother five baskets
Larrabee, Lisa
A Native American girl learns how to make baskets from an elderly woman. As she learns, she also discovers many things about her life and herself.

Howie helps himself
Fassler, Joan
Howie is confined to a wheelchair. He must overcome many barriers. He has one thing he wants to do - be able to move his wheelchair all by himself. He succeeds.

Queen of the may
Kroll, Steven
Because of Sylvie's goodness, her wicked stepmother and stepsister are vanquished, and she becomes Queen of the May. Because she selflessly helped others, they help her in return.

Oh, the places you will go
Seuss, Dr.
A young person receives advice for going out into the world: expect life's ups and downs, be prepared for the unexpected, learn to roll with the punches, and perserverence pays off.

Mirandy and brother wind
McKissack, Patricia C.
To win first prize in the dance contest, Mirandy tries to capture the wind for her partner.

Everyone asked about you
Gross, Theodore Faro
Charlie wants Nora to come out and play, but Nora is so stubborn that she won't come out of her room. Charlie finally convinces Nora when he tells her about all of the people and creatures who have been asking about her.

Vejeigantes masquerade
Delacre, Lulu
Ramon wanted to be a vejigante masqueradae and dance in the carnival. He didn't have enough money to buy a new costume, so he made one. He worked in a mask store so he could have a new mask too.

A boy named giotto
Guarnieri, Paolo
Dreams really do come true for Giotto, a young shepard boy, who is mindless of his chores and duties because of his strong passion and talent for painting. Although he loses a sheep, Giotto's curiosity and persistence lead him to find someone who can unlock the door to his artistic future.