The best children’s books about real-life children who overcame hardships and made a difference in the world

I’ve had an easy life in so many ways, so I appreciate learning from people whose childhood adversities shaped them to make positive changes in the world. When Emmanuel was born in Ghana with a deformed leg, his future looked bleak. Some considered him “cursed.” His mother encouraged him to dream big and become independent. He refused to be defined by his disability and ended up showing “that being disabled does not mean being unable.” To bring attention to the difficulties disabled people face Emmanuel organized and completed a 400-mile bike ride across Ghana. 

I love this book because Emmanuel’s mother believed he was more than his disability, and the way Emmanuel proved this to be true prompted the Ghanaian Parliament to pass the Persons with Disability Act. 

Malala Yousafzai inspires me because she never lost sight of the importance of education and continues to work for justice in the world. Malala was a young student in Pakistan when the Taliban took over her nation and prohibited girls from going to school. Malala spoke out against Taliban actions, advocating for universal education. That was enough to make the Taliban afraid of her. They tried to kill her; she almost died in the attempted assassination. That would have caused many people to retreat in fear, but not Malala. Once she recovered, she became an even more outspoken activist for female education and won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. 

I enjoy stories of people whose imaginations lead them to invent something important for humankind. Louis Braille, for instance, who became blind in a childhood accident. When he attended the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, no books existed for him to read. Building on the work of earlier educators, by the time he was fifteen years old Braille created a raised dot system by which visually impaired people could read books.

I love this book because Braille used the adversity of his blindness to make a difference for generations of visually impaired persons who have been able to enjoy reading books by Braille.

As an animal lover and vegan, I am impressed with all Temple Grandin has done to help humans understand how the minds of animals work. When Grandin was a child, no one knew what to make of her. Diagnosed autistic, she looked at the world differently than many people. She grew up to be a renowned scientist and animal behaviorist who changed lives. Grandin’s unique way of seeing caused her to physically put herself at the eye level of cows being pushed into slaughterhouses. She helped redesign a more humane, less stressful loading process. Her book, How Animals Make Us Human gave me new insights as I wrote my own book, which explores how eating no or less meat would help combat climate change.

When I was a child The Miracle Worker (the film based on Helen Keller’s life) had a profound influence on me. I couldn’t imagine being a deaf and blind child in the 1880s when there were not many resources for deaf-blind people. How would it feel to be unable to communicate with other people? I cheered for Helen’s teacher and friend, Annie Sullivan, who helped Helen unlock a new way of communicating. Keller’s world opened up and she was able to share her remarkable intellect and unusual experience with generations of readers. Keller was the first deaf-blind college graduate and ended up becoming a famous author, teacher, and humanitarian.