Summer Reading List: 2025 Young Readers Edition

Forgotten Founders: Black Patriots, Women Soldiers, and Other Thinkers and Heroes Who Shaped Early America
Written by Mifflin Lowe | Illustrated by Wiliam Luong
Best for ages 7-11

The founding of America was not accomplished by a handful of people; it required the heart, soul, and grit of an entire nation. This inspiring book of stories is about the heroic women, African Americans, immigrants, and others who played pivotal roles in America’s birth.

Excerpt: “In the end, the point of this book is not to rewrite history or dismiss the people long known as the Founding Fathers or make the lives of women, Native Americans, or Blacks sound better than they were. Instead, the goal is to broaden our perspective — and celebrate those who generally have yet to be sufficiently recognized — to make the story of the founding of this country everyone’s story, for everyone’s it is.”

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Cloaked in Courage: Uncovering Deborah Sampson, Patriot Solider
Written by Beth Anderson | Illustrated by Anne Lambelet
Best for ages 7-10

Deborah Sampson longs to break free. To be much more than a girl is allowed to be. Caught up in her country’s fight for independence, 18-year-old Deborah declares her own independence. She soon enlists in George Washington’s Continental Army, signing on as Robert Shurtliff. A young lady can’t battle the British, but a man can! But being a soldier is hard, dangerous work. Can she keep her identity a secret? 

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The World Turned Upside Down: The Yorktown Victory that Won American Independence
Written by Tim Grove
Best for ages 10-14

In October 1781, American, French, and British forces converged on a small village named Yorktown — a place that the British would try to forget, and Americans would forever remember. In his riveting, balanced, and thoroughly researched account of the Revolutionary War’s last pivotal conflict, author Tim Grove follows the true stories of American, French, and British players, whose lives intersected at Yorktown.

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Her Name was Mary Katherine: The Only Woman Whose Name is on the Declaration of Independence
Written by Ella Schwartz | Illustrated by Dow Phumiruk
Best for ages 7-10

When the Continental Congress decreed that the Declaration of Independence be widely distributed, one person rose to the occasion and printed the document — boldly inserting her name at the bottom with a printing credit: Mary Katharine Goddard. Here is an important biography of a groundbreaking woman who had the courage to write herself into the history she helped create.

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