Best Biographies Books for 4 Year Olds

Here are the top 30 biographies books for 4 year olds. Please click Read Review to read book reviews on Amazon. You can also click Find in Library to check book availability at your local library. If the default library is not correct, please follow Change Library to reset it.

1. The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game

by: Nancy ChurninJez Tuya
Release date: Mar 01, 2016
Number of Pages: 32
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All William Ellsworth Hoy wanted to do was play baseball. After losing out on a spot on the local deaf team, William practiced even harder?eventually earning a position on a professional team. But his struggle was far from over. In addition to the prejudice Hoy faced, he could not hear the umpires’ calls. One day he asked the umpire to use hand signals: strike, ball, out. That day he not only got on base but also changed the way the game was played forever. William “Dummy” Hoy became one of the greatest and most beloved players of his time!
tags:

Children’s Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Special Needs

2. Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World

by: Craig HatkoffJuliana HatkoffIsabella HatkoffDr. Gerald R. Uhlich
Release date: Nov 01, 2007
Number of Pages: 40
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From the bestselling author of Owen & Mzee, a picture book about Knut, the adorable polar bear cub who’s captured hearts around the world.

When Knut was born, the first polar bear cub at the Berlin Zoo in more than thirty years, he was no bigger than a snowball and unable to care for himself. His mother, a rescued East German circus bear, didn’t know how to take care of Knut and rejected him. Knut would have died if it weren’t for Thomas Dorflein, a zookeeper who nurtured Knut, feeding him, sleeping with him, and giving him the love and attention Knut needed to thrive. But Thomas wasn’t the only one who adopted Knut. The adorable little polar bear captured the world’s attention, and now Knut is loved around the globe.

tags:

Children’s Books > Animals > Bears

3. Matisse the King of Color (Anholt’s Artists Books for Children)

by: Laurence Anholt
Release date: Oct 01, 2007
Number of Pages: 32
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When Monique, a young visiting nurse, steps into the home of an elderly patient, she finds herself in rooms filled with the most vivid color she has ever seen. Her patient is the artist Henri Matisse, and as Matisse recovers from his illness, he and Monique become good friends. Later, Monique enters a convent where she becomes a nursing nun?and by happy coincidence, she meets Matisse once again. Her religious order is so poor that they don’t have a chapel of their own, but Matisse decides that with Monique’s help, he can remedy that situation. He develops a sketch drawn by Monique into a brilliant set of stained-glass chapel windows, and then uses his influence to raise enough money for the chapel’s construction. This true account of Matisse and the chapel at Vence, in southern France, is the main focus of Laurence Anholt’s newest delightful children’s story. Anholt’s illustrations faithfully reproduce many of Matisse’s wonderful artworks in this beautiful storybook.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Art > History

4. Monsieur Marceau: Actor Without Words

by: Leda SchubertGerard DuBois
Release date: Sep 04, 2012
Number of Pages: 40
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Marcel Marceau, the world’s most famous mime, enthralled audiences around the world for more than fifty years. When he waved his hand or lifted his eyebrow he was able to speak volumes without ever saying a word. But few know the story of the man behind those gestures . . .

Distinguished author Leda Schubert and award-winning artist Gerard DuBois bring their own artistry to this gorgeously written and illustrated picture book biography.

Monsieur Marceau is a Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Book of 2012

tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Performing Arts

5. Gutsy Girls: Strong Christian Women Who Impacted the World: Book Two: Sisters, Corrie and Betsie ten Boom

by: Amy L. SullivanBeverly Ann Wines
Release date: Jun 02, 2016
Number of Pages: 42
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Girls need heroes. Why not introduce them to women who are smart, bold, courageous, and who love Jesus? -Amy L. Sullivan

Book Two in the Gutsy Girls: Strong Christian Women Who Impacted the World series introduces readers to sisters, Corrie and Betsie ten Boom. This true story tells of two sisters love for God, His people, and each other during one of the most horrifying times in history, World War II. Risking their lives to assist Jews and underground workers, Corrie and Betsie ten Boom showed the world faith and forgiveness triumphs over evil.

With Amy Sullivan’s captivating text and Beverly Ann Wines’ winsome illustrations, this book’s powerful message will remain long after readers close the book.

tags:

Children’s Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Girls & Women

6. Big-Enough Anna

by: Pam FlowersBill FarnsworthAnn Dixon
Release date: Oct 01, 2003
Number of Pages: 32
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Anna may be the smallest dog in the litter, but she’s surely the most determined. In this incredible true story. Anna joins a dog team for a 2,500-mile expedition across the top of the world.
tags:

Children’s Books > Animals > Dogs

7. George Gershwin

by: Mike Venezia
Release date: Mar 01, 1995
Number of Pages: 32
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The author/illustrator of the highly successful Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series lends his creative talents to another fun, informative series, this one featuring world-famous composers.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Music > Jazz

8. Georges Seurat (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists (Sagebrush))

by: Mike Venezia
Release date: Mar 01, 2003
Number of Pages: 32
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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Introduces kids to the life and work of Post-Impressionist French artist Georges Seurat. This great artist was best known for inventing Pointillism.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Art > History

9. Rembrandt and the Boy Who Drew Dogs: A story about Rembrandt van Rijn

by: Molly BlaisdellNancy Lane
Release date: May 01, 2008
Number of Pages: 32
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Author Molly Blaisdell transports young readers to the city of Amsterdam in the 1650s. It is a time when world-renowned artist Rembrandt van Rijn is at the height of fame among his patrons—and when his young son Titus longs to imitate his father and become a great painter. At first, Rembrandt rebuffs Titus’s attempts at drawing, telling the boy he is too young to learn art. But gradually, the master painter is won over by his son’s enthusiasm and persistence, and he begins to teach a very happy Titus the basic techniques of drawing from life. Here is a warmhearted story for children, with illustrations that capture the atmosphere of seventeenth-century Holland and suggest some of the genius that radiates from Rembrandt’s own magnificent paintings.
tags:

Arts & Photography > Individual Artists

10. Cezanne and the Apple Boy (Anholt’s Artists)

by: Laurence Anholt
Release date: Oct 01, 2009
Number of Pages: 32
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This brand-new title in Laurence Anholt’s beautifully illustrated children’s series of stories about famous artists recounts a wonderful adventure experienced by Paul, a little boy who is named after his father, Paul Cézanne. The elder Cézanne had been away from home for so long that the boy has difficulty recognizing his father when he joins him on a painting expedition in the mountains of southern France. They quickly become fast friends, and the artist takes great pleasure in painting a portrait of his apple-cheeked son. Most of his paintings, however, are landscapes of the mountain country where they are camping, although the people who live nearby often laugh at the artist’s pictures, which they think are poor. But young Paul admires his father’s work—and he is not alone. A picture dealer from Paris happens to be in the region, and when he sees Cézanne’s paintings, he thinks they are wonderful. Before long, Cézanne becomes famous and wealthy. The story, enhanced with Laurence Anholt’s illustrations on every page, include several that are reproductions of Cézanne’s famous paintings.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Art

11. Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Song

by: Ashley BryanAshley BryanBill McGuinness
Release date: Jan 06, 2009
Number of Pages: 64
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Ashley’s autobiography is full of art, photographs, and the poignant never-say-never tale of his rich life, a life that has always included drawing and painting. Even as a boy growing up during the Depression, he painted — finding cast off objects to turn into books and kites and toy and art. Even as a solder in the segregated Army on the beaches of Normandy, he sketched — keeping charcoal crayons and paper in his gasmask to draw with during lulls. Even as a talented, visionary art student who was accepted and then turned away from college upon arrival, the school telling Ashley that to give a scholarship to an African American student would be a waste, he painted — continuing to create art when he could have been discouraged, continuing to polish his talents when his spirit should have been beaten. Ashley went on to become a Hans Christian Anderson Award nominee, a May Hill Arbuthnot lecturer, and a multiple Coretta Scott King award winner. As you might imagine, his story is powerful, bursting with his creative energy, and a testament to believing in oneself. It’s a book every child in America should have access to and it does what the very best autobiographies do; it inspires!
tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Art

12. He Said Yes: The Story of Father Mychal Judge

by: Kelly Ann LynchM Scott Oatman
Release date: Sep 01, 2007
Number of Pages: 32
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A true story about the remarkable life and untimely death on 9/11 of Father Mychal Judge, He Said Yes tells how an ordinary boy from Brooklyn became an extraordinary Franciscan priest and beloved New York City Fire Department chaplain.
tags:

Biographies & Memoirs

13. My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

by: Martin Luther III KingAG Ford
Release date: Aug 06, 2013
Number of Pages: 32
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What was it like growing up as a son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? This picture book memoir, My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King III, provides insight into one of history’s most fascinating families and into a special bond between father and son.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King III was one of those four little children mentioned in Martin Luther King’s groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech. In this memoir, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son gives an intimate look at the man and the father behind the civil rights leader. Mr. King’s remembrances show both his warm, loving family and a momentous time in American history.

AG Ford is the illustrator of several other books for children, including the New York Times bestselling Barack. He is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award.

tags:

Children’s Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Difficult Discussions > Prejudice & Racism

14. National Geographic Readers: George Washington Carver (Readers Bios)

by: Kitson Jazynka
Release date: Jan 12, 2016
Number of Pages: 32
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Take a bite into the fascinating history of peanut butter and the man who invented it. Through leveled text and engaging photos, kids meet George Washington Carver and learn about his important work with peanuts and other plants. This Level 1 reader is carefully leveled for an early independent reading or read aloud experience, perfect to encourage the scientists and explorers of tomorrow! From the Trade Paperback edition.
tags:

Children’s Books > Literature & Fiction > Chapter Books & Readers > Beginner Readers

15. Tito Puente, Mambo King/Tito Puente, Rey del Mambo (Pura Belpre Honor Books – Illustration Honor)

by: Monica BrownRafael Lopez
Release date: Mar 05, 2013
Number of Pages: 32
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In this vibrant bilingual picture book biography of musician Tito Puente, readers will dance along to the beat of this mambo king’s life. Tito Puente loved banging pots and pans as a child, but what he really dreamed of was having his own band one day. From Spanish Harlem to the Grammy Awards—and all the beats in between—this is the true life story of a boy whose passion for music turned him into the “King of Mambo.”

Award-winning author-illustrator duo Monica Brown and Rafael López bring the remarkable story of this talented legend to life in this Pura Belpré Honor Book. Supports the Common Core State Standards.

tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Musical

16. Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll

by: Holly George-WarrenLaura Levine
Release date: May 25, 2004
Number of Pages: 32
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From Bill Haley and His Comets to James Brown and his Famous Flames, this fun and fact-filled introduction to the pioneers of rock & roll will have you dancing in the aisles. These are fourteen original stars who created a brand-new sound almost fifty years ago—they influenced a generation of teenagers and inspired many of today’s most important musicians.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Music

17. Tim Tebow: Always a Hero

by: Tim Polzer
Release date: Sep 01, 2012
Number of Pages: 48
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An easy-to-read biography of one of the NFL’s hottest stars!

It’s Tebow Time!

With an incredible amount of talent and the ability to win huge games, Tim Tebow is the player that every football fan is talking about. Follow Tim from his early high school years, his highly successful college career, through his recent trade to theNew York Jets in this easy-to-read story filled with photographs and fun facts.

tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Sports & Recreation

18. Dalí and the Path of Dreams

by: Anna ObiolsJoan Subirana
Release date: Mar 22, 2004
Number of Pages: 32
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The paintings of Salvador Dali, with their dreamy imagery, have a special appeal to children, who respond to the sense of imagination and whimsy they see. In Dali and the Path of Dreams, author Anna Obiols and illustrator Joan Subirana create an adventure story for young Dali inspired by the famous painter’s style. Little Salvi, as he’s known, rides on a long-legged elephant, encounters a chef who tosses clocks like pancakes, finds a magic key, flies on a floating boat, and does much more in this charming tribute to the seminal surrealist.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Art

19. Frankie Liked to Sing

by: John SevenJana Christy
Release date: Oct 13, 2015
Number of Pages: 32
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Frankie Liked to Sing celebrates the life of Frank Sinatra, whose iconic voice changed popular music forever and influenced generations of listeners all over the world. From his early days in Hoboken, New Jersey, to making it big in New York City, Sinatra was determined to follow his dream of being a singer and moving people with his voice. And now, one hundred years after his birth, his legacy lives on with this spirited and loving tribute.
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Music

20. Hank Aaron: Brave in Every Way

by: Peter GolenbockPaul Lee
Release date: Mar 01, 2005
Number of Pages: 32
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On April 8, 1974, America watched as Hank Aaron stepped up to the plate and hit home run number 715! With that hit, he surpassed Babe Ruth’s legendary baseball record and realized a lifelong dream.

Before blacks were allowed in the major leagues, Hank was determined to play. This is the story of how Hank Aaron became a great ballplayer and an inspiration to us all.

tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Multicultural

21. The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i

by: Fay StanleyDiane Stanley
Release date: Feb 01, 2001
Number of Pages: 40
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The day she was born, bells rang joyously and cannon fired noisy salutes–at last there was an heir to the Hawai’ian throne. But although this beautiful young princess worked tirelessly to prepare herself to rule, and fought bravely to protect the rights of her beloved people, she would never be queen.

When it was first published, The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i won many honors for its sensitive text and brilliantly colored illustrations. A 1991 American Library Association Notable Book, it also won the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Council Social Studies.

In this reissued edition of an inspired collaboration, author Fay Stanley, writing her only children’s book, and daughter Diane Stanley, the celebrated author and illustrator, tell the touching, bittersweet story of Princess Ka’iulani and open a window onto a nation’s history that is often forgotten.

tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Historical

22. Pele, King of Soccer/Pele, El Rey del Futbol

by: Monica BrownRudy Gutierrez
Release date: May 16, 2017
Number of Pages: 40
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Monica Brown and Rudy Gutierrez team up to deliver what Kirkus called, in a starred review, an “inspiring blend of art and story,” about the most famous soccer star in the world, Pelé. This bilingual picture book will inspire, teach, and amaze readers as they learn about the man who revolutionized the sport of soccer.

Do you know how a poor boy from Brazil who loved fútbol more than anything else became the biggest soccer star the world has ever known? This is the true story of Pelé, King of Soccer, the first man in the history of the sport to score a thousand goals and become a living legend. Rudy Gutierrez’s dynamic illustrations make award-winning author Monica Brown’s story of this remarkable sports hero come alive!

 

tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Sports & Recreation

23. Saint Patrick

by: Ann Tompert
Release date: Jan 01, 2005
Number of Pages: 32
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Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction
tags:

Christian Books & Bibles > Catholicism > Saints

24. The Story of Rosa Parks

by: Patricia A. PingrySteven Walker
Release date: Feb 01, 2007
Number of Pages: 24
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Rosa Parks is recognized as “the mother of the Civil Rights movements” and one of the most courageous women of the twentieth century. This story of only 200 words provides an introduction to Rosa Parks and uses simple, short words with only the bare outline of Parks’s life.

The focus of the story is the history-making event of December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the Cleveland Avenue bus.

tags:

Children’s Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Difficult Discussions > Prejudice & Racism

25. Aaron Copland

by: Mike Venezia
Release date: Sep 01, 1995
Number of Pages: 32
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This series meets National Curriculum Standards for: Social Studies: Culture
tags:

Children’s Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Music > Classical

26. Jalani and the Lock (African American Quartet)

by: Lorenzo Pace
Release date: Jan 15, 2015
Number of Pages: 48
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Sculptor Lorenzo Pace won the commission to create the African Burial Ground Memorial sculpture in New York City, which has at its base a replica of the lock that imprisoned his great-grandfather as a slave, passed down through the generations. Paces beautiful story about the fictional Jalanis chained arrival in the United States tells an uplifting story for children about his ultimate freedom.
tags:

Children’s Books > Biographies > Historical

27. All by Herself

by: Ann Whitford PaulMichael Steirnagle
Release date: Feb 01, 2000
Number of Pages: 40
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Amelia Earhart, Golda Meir, Pocahontas, Rachel Carson, Wanda Gág, Wilma Rudolph, and other determined young women–both famous and less familiar–took risks and made sacrifices to do brave things. Each of these inspiring poems proves that every girl, no matter who she is or where she lives, is capable of making a difference.
tags:

Children’s Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Girls & Women

28. The Boxer: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Harry Haft

by: Reinhard Kleist
Release date: Apr 29, 2014
Number of Pages: 200
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Poland, 1941. Sixteen-year-old Harry Haft is sent to Auschwitz. When he is forced to fight against other inmates for the amusement of the SS officers, Haft shows extraordinary strength and courage, and a determination to survive. As the Soviet Army advances in April 1945, he makes a daring escape from the Nazis. After negotiating the turmoil of postwar Poland, Haft immigrates to the United States and establishes himself as a professional prizefighter, remaining undefeated until he faces heavy­weight champion Rocky Marciano in 1949. In The Boxer, Reinhard Kleist reveals another side to the steely Harry Haft: a man struggling to escape the memories of the fiancée he left behind in Poland. This is a powerful and moving graphic novel about love and the will to survive.
tags:

Biographies & Memoirs

29. Christopher: The Holy Giant

by: Tomie dePaola
Release date: Apr 01, 1995
Number of Pages: 26
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A celebrated illustrator presents his interpretation of the legend of St. Christopher, who originally had been a giant named Reprobus out to serve the world’s most powerful king, a ruler he finds when he carries the young Christ across a river.
tags:

Children’s Books > Literature & Fiction

30. Make a Stand: “When life gives you lemons, change the world!”

by: Vivienne Harr
Release date: Jan 10, 2014
Number of Pages: 48
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Make a Stand is a beautiful and inspiring book about how big things have small beginnings… Learn how Vivienne turned a moment into a movement, what inspired her, how it all came together, and what you should do next time someone tells you No! Make a Stand.
tags:

Children’s Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Family Life > Values

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Last updated: Monday, December 5, 2016 3:25 AM