Around the Globe With The “Who Is?” Book Series: Categorizing the “Who Is” Books by Country
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Who Is books are popular non-fiction books for children in elementary school, and it can be hard to keep track of how many there are, which ones are out there. This list of Who Is books should help families and teachers organize them so that they can add relevant Who Is books into their study of a particular country or continent. It may be helpful to people doing Torchlight K or Build Your Library 0 and gearing it up toward older readers at the same time.
The inclusion of these books on this list is not an endorsement of the material within the book. Please pre-read and choose books that work best for your family. The Who Is series has a lot of books out, some more relevant to cultural studies than others.
List of Who Is Books and What Is Books by Country and Continent
Europe
United Kingdom:
Who Was Henry VIII? King of England, founder of the Anglican Church
Who Was Queen Elizabeth? Queen of the early 1600s
Who William Shakespeare? Poet and playwright
Who Was Isaac Newton? Identified theory of gravity, an inventor of calculus
Who Was Charles Dickens? Writer of Christmas Carol and works about England’s cities
Who Was Jane Austen? Writer of Pride and Prejudice in 1812
Who Was Lewis Carroll? Alice in Wonderland author in 1865
Who Were Stanley and Livingstone? (1866 England explorers)
Who Was Charles Darwin? Explorer of the Galapagos Islands
Who Was Beatrix Potter? Peter Rabbit author and conservationist
Who Was A.A. Milne? (Winnie the Pooh author)
Who Was Ernest Shackleton? British explorer of the Antarctic
Who Was Winston Churchill? Prime Minister during World War 2
Who Was J.R.R. Tolkein? Lord of the Rings and Hobbit author
Who Was Roald Dahl? Author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach
Who Are The Rolling Stones?
Who Was Jane Goodall? A primatologist who lived with chimps for 50+ years
Who Was David Bowie? Singer, songwriter of glam rock
Who Was Princess Diana? Mother of Prince William and Prince Harry
Who Is Elton John? Singer and pianist, famous entertainer
Who is David Beckham? Soccer player, soccer team owner
Who Is J.K. Rowling? Author of Harry Potter series
Who is Malala Yousafzai? Education advocate
Who is Richard Branson? Business owner and investor
Where is the Tower of London? The old jail for political prisoners, in central London
Where is the Parthenon? Parts of this Greek national treasure are held in the British Museum
Ireland
Who is Bono? Singer of U2
Spain:
Who Was Christopher Columbus? (Columbus was Italian, commissioned by Spain to travel)
Portugal:
Ferdinand Magellan? An explorer whose crew circumnavigated the globe
France:
Who Was Joan of Arc? Religious Crusader
Who Was Marie Antoinette? Queen of France
Who Was Napoleon? Emperor of France
Who Was Louis Braille? Educator to the Blind
Who Was Jules Verne? Author of science fiction (good to pair with Nelly Bly)
Who Was Claude Monet? French Impressionist painter
Who Was Marie Curie? Winner of 2 Nobel prizes, studied radiation
Who Was Jacques Cousteau? Underwater sea explorer
Netherlands:
Who Was Anne Frank? Diarist, Holocaust victim
Germany:
Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Musical composer
Who Were the Brothers Grimm? The founders of many famous fairy tales in 1815
Who Was Albert Einstein? German-American physicist
Austria:
Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Musical composer, born in Germany, moved to Austria
Hungary:
Who Was Harry Houdini? Magician, illusionist who was born in Hungary and emigrated at age 4
Poland:
Who Was Marie Curie? Winner of 2 Nobel prizes, studied radiation. Polish, lived in France.
Italy:
Who Was Marco Polo?
Who Was Christopher Columbus?
Who Was Galileo?
Who Was Leonardo da Vinci?
Where is the Colosseum? Rome, Italy
Vatican City:
Who Is Pope Francis?
Where Is The Vatican?
Iceland:
Who Was Leif Erikson? First European to arrive to North America, in Canada
Greece:
Who Was Alexander the Great?
Where is the Parthenon? On the acropolis of Athens, but much has been taken to Britain
Macedonia:
Who Was Alexander the Great?
Serbia:
Who was Nikola Tesla? Maker of our electric plugs, inspiration of “Tesla” the car
North America
Canada:
Who Was Leif Erikson? First European to arrive to North America, in Canada
Who Was Wayne Gretzky? Hockey Player
Where are The Niagara Falls? On the border of Canada and New York, United States
United States:
Note: Timelines are approximate, people live long lives across multiple eras.
Who Was Blackbeard? A Pirate of the Carribean in 1716
American Revolution
Who Was Ben Franklin? Scientist and printer, first community libraries, helped on Declaration of Independence, and secured French assistance in American Revolution
Who Was George Washington? Military leader in American Revolution, first US President
Who Was Paul Revere? Warned the British were coming in battles of Lexington and Concord
Who Was Betsy Ross? Designer of first American flag
Who Was Benedict Arnold? A hero of the American Revolution, turned Redcoat in 1780
Who Was Alexander Hamilton? “Just you wait…” Worked with George Washington on America as a new nation
Who Was Abigail Adams? First Lady of the United States, mother of President John Q Adams
Who Was Thomas Jefferson? Writer of Declaration of Independence, President, founder of UVA
Early 1800s
Who Was Sacagawea? A translator and guide on the Lewis & Clark expedition to the Pacific
Who Was Johnny Appleseed? John Chapman planted tree nurseries and a missionary
Who Was Daniel Boone? Explorer into Northwest territory and Cumberland Gap in Maryland
Who Was Davy Crockett? Fought at Alamo in 1836
Who Was Levi Strauss? (the creator of denim pants, “Levis”, in the 1949 Gold Rush)
Who Was Edgar Allen Poe? Poet of spooky stories
Civil War Era
Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe? Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in 1850s
Who Was Abraham Lincoln? US President during US Civil War, 3 million slaves in the United States were liberated during the five years he was in power.
Who Was Frederick Douglass? Advocate for African-American rights, got the first Black units put in the U.S. Army. Born in enslavement, invited to the White House by President Lincoln
Who Was Harriet Tubman? Rescuer of hundreds of slaves to freedom, Civil War commander, and activist for women’s right to vote.
Who Was Clara Barton? Civil War nurse, creator of American Red Cross
Who Was Ulysses S. Grant? Civil War General of the Union, and later US President
Who Was Robert E. Lee? General of the Confederate States, surrendered in Civil War
Post Civil War, late 1800s
Who Was Walt Whitman? (American poet in the 1860s-1870s)
Who Was Mark Twain? Author of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
Who Was P.T. Barnum? circus founder
Who Was Annie Oakley? Sharpshooter with her gun
Who Was Susan B. Anthony? Worked for women’s right to vote
Who Was Booker T. Washington? Born enslaved, graduated college, and then founded his own college called the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he hired George Washingotn Carver as a professor.
Who Was George Washington Carver? Born enslaved, went to college, became a botanist who transformed American agriculture by finding additional business uses for products like potatoes and peanuts
Who Was Alexander Graham Bell? Inventor of the telephone
Who Was Thomas Alva Edison? Electricity pioneer, inventor of phonograph (record-player)
Who Was Sojourner Truth? Women’s Rights Activist and won a court case for race-based discrimination on a streetcar
Who was Nelly Bly? In 1885 she traveled around the world in 72 days, an award-winning journalist
Who Was Ida B. Wells? Born in slavery, Ida B. Wells was a journalist who brought truth to power. She documented the lynchings happening in the Jim Crow South, worked for women’s right to vote, and helped found the NAACP.
Who Was Sitting Bull? Leader of Standing Rock Indian Reservation
Who Was Nikola Tesla? Maker of our electric plugs (AC current), inspiration of “Tesla” the car
Early 1900s
Who Was Theodore Roosevelt? US President, fought in Spanish American War, created national park system
Who Were The Wright Brothers? First flight of an airplane
Who Was Henry Ford? An inventor of automobiles
Who Was Helen Keller? Public speaker and author who was born deaf, blind, and mute
Who Was Juliette Gordon Lowe? (founded Girl Scouts in 1912)
1920s
Who Was Harry Houdini? A magician and escape artist
Who Was Babe Ruth? Pitcher and homerun hitter for the New York Yankees
Who Was Duke Ellington? Biggest name in jazz, composer of 3,000 songs, bandleader
Who Was Louis Armstrong? Trumpet player called “Satchmo”, pioneer of jazz
Who Was Walt Disney? Creator of Mickey Mouse, Disneyworld, and Disney corporation
1930s
Who Was Robert Ripley? Believe it or Not, this cartoonist got the US its national anthem
Who Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt? US President for four terms, Great Depression to WW2
Who Was Eleanor Roosevelt? Human Rights Activist at United Nations, First Lady
Who Was Milton Hersey? A milk chocolate maker
Who Were The Three Stooges?
Who Was Charlie Chaplin? Film star
Who Was Seabiscuit? A Horse
Who Was Milton Bradley? The producer of the Monopoly Board Game
Who Was Jesse Owens? Track runner in 1936 Olympics in Berlin
Who Was Amelia Earhart? Pilot who worked on flying around the world solo by plane
Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder? Writer of stories about the American prairie
Who Was Chuck Jones? Cartoon animator behind Tom & Jerry, Loony Toons, and Grinch Who Stole Christmas animated movie
1940s
Who Were the Navajo Code Talkers? (WW2 radio operators using their language)
Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? Decorated pilots of World War 2 trained at the Tuskegee Institute, school founded by Booker T. Washington
Who Was Jackie Robinson? Military soldier, MLB baseball, first player to integrate MLB
Who Was Maria Tallchief? In 1946, became star of New York City Ballet. Sugar Plum Fairy and Firebird roles, born on Osage Reservation in Oklahoma
Who Was Albert Einstein? German-American physicist
Who Was Frank Lloyd Wright? Architect of flat-roofed houses embedded in nature
1950s
Who Was Lucille Ball? Television producer, first woman to be pregnant on television, comedienne
Who Was Norman Rockwell? Painter of American idyllic towns and later Ruby Bridges
Who Was Elvis Presley? American singer who was drafted into Vietnam War
1960s
Who Was Julia Child? A famous television chef in 1960s
Who Was Alfred Hitchcock? Film maker
Who Was Dr. Seuss? Children’s book illustrator and poet
Who Was Rosa Parks? Civil Rights Activist, started Montgomery Bus Boycott
Who Was John F. Kennedy? President of the United States
Who Was Jacqueline Kennedy? First Lady of United States
Who Was Coretta Scott King? Civil Rights Activist and Book Award Giver
Who Was Martin Luther King Jr.? Civil Rights Activist for right to vote, equal rights in businesses and jobs, fair housing laws, fair job wages
Who Was Richard Nixon? US Vice Pres in the 1950s, became Pres in 1969.
Who Was Harvey Milk? Groundbreaking equal-rights quality candidate in the 1960s
Who Was Andy Warhol? Artist of 1960s in the pop art movement
Who is Bob Dylan? Singer, songwriter
Who Was Pete Seeger? Songwriter in folk movement
Who Was Cesar Chavez? Grape farmer union activist
Who Was Jim Henson? Muppets creator, Sesame Street founder
Who Was Neil Armstrong? First man on the moon in July, 1969
Who Was Aretha Franklin? R-E-S-P-E-C-T, soul singer
Who Was Muhammad Ali? Famous boxer, protester of Vietnam War, advocate for equal rights
1970s
Who Was Rachel Carson? Biologist, writer, caused founding of EPA
Who is Gloria Steinem? Advocate for Equal Rights Amendment for women
Who Was Sam Walton? Founded Walmart, in Arkansas
Who Was Mr. Rogers? Founder of quality children’s television
Who Was Roberto Clemente? Long-running MLB baseball player from Puerto Rico
Who Is George Lucas? Creator of Star Wars movies?
1980s
Who Was Sally Ride? Astronaut and teacher in the Challenger Disaster of 1985
Who Was Bruce Lee? Martial Arts movie filmmaker
Who Was Steven Hawking? Astrophysicist studying the universe, famous disability icon
Who Was Ronald Reagan? President of the United States, movie actor previously
Who Is Bruce Springsteen? American Singer of Rock music
Who is Steven Spielberg? American movie filmmaker
1990s
Who Was Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Supreme Court Justice and women’s rights lawyer
Who is Michael Jordan? Basketball champion, Olympian, businessperson
Who Was Selena? Best-selling Latin music singer of 1990s
Who Was Maya Angelou? America’s poet and civil rights activist
Who is Judy Blume? Children’s author of the Fudge series
Who Is Bill Gates? Former CEO of Microsoft, works on health and education initiatives
2000s onward
Who Was Steve Jobs? A founder of Apple Computers
Who Was Stan Lee? Creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, father of superheros
Who is Neil deGrasse Tyson? (currently living astronomer)
Who Is RuPaul? (current television host)
Who is Stevie Wonder? Blind singer, successful music artist, activist for equality
Who is Jackie Chan? (movie star from Hong Kong)
Who is R.L.Stine? Author of Goosebumps, scary stories for children.
Who is Jeff Kinney? Author of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series
Who is Derek Jeter? New York Yankees baseball player
Who is Dolly Parton? Country music singer, literacy adocate
Who Is Michelle Obama? First Lady, healthy eating advocate
Who Is Barack Obama? US President
Who is Sonia Sotomayor? Third woman on U.S. Supreme Court
Who is Hillary Clinton? First Lady, US Senator, Secretary of State
Who Are Venus and Serena Williams? Most Wimbleton tennis tournaments won
Who is Oprah Winfrey? Successful talk show host, first Black female billionaire
Where is Broadway? New York City theater district
Where is Walt Disneyworld? Orlando, Florida themepark
Where is Hollywood? Movie industry of Los Angeles, California
Where is Area 51? A military classified area near Roswell, New Mexico
Where is the Mississippi River? The longest U.S. river that splits the US into East to West
Where is Alcatraz? Prison on an island off of San Francisco, California
Where is the Brooklyn Bridge? In New York City, in the borough of Brooklyn
Where are the Niagara Falls? On the border of Canada and New York, United States
Where is the Empire State Building? In Manhattan borough of New York City, NY
Where is the White House? 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, District of Columbia
Where is Mount Rushmore? South Dakota
Where is the Grand Canyon? Arizona, in the area near both Utah and Colorado
Mexico:
Who Was Frida Kahlo? Painter
Who Was Selena? Texan singer of Mexican heritage, biggest Latina singer in 1990s
Where is Chichen Itza?
Cuba:
Who Was Che Guevara? Cuban revolutionary, author of “The Motorcycle Diaries”, born in Argentina
Who was Celia Cruz? Famous Cuban singer, Queen of Salsa, and “Azucar!” 1960s
Who Was Fidel Castro? Cuban dictator
Jamaica:
Who Was Bob Marley? Famous reggae singer
Caribbean:
Where is the Bermuda Triangle?
Asia
Russia:
Who Was Catherine the Great? (1762, overthrew her husband and became ruler of Russia)
Where is the Kremlin? Government building in Moscow
Mongolia:
Who Was Genghis Khan?
China:
Who Was Confucius? (551 B.C., a leader in education)
Who is Jackie Chan? (movie star from Hong Kong)
Where is Mount Everest? On the border of Nepal and China
Where is the Great Wall? Beijing
Tibetan Buddhism of China:
Who Is the Dalai Lama?
Nepal:
Where is Mount Everest? Tallest mountain in the world, in Nepal.
Pakistan:
Who is Malala Yousafzai? Education advocate
India:
Who Was Gandhi? Worked on the rights of Indians during British colonial rule
Who Was Mother Teresa? Catholic nun who worked in hospice care
Where is the Taj Mahal? The city of Agra
Israel:
Who Was Jesus? Leading figure in Christianity
South America
Brazil:
Ecuador:
Who Was Charles Darwin? (his work on the Galapagos Islands highlighted that location in Ecuador)
Where Are the Galapagos Islands?
Chile:
Where is Easter Island?
Peru:
Where is Machu Picchu? Incan city of the 1500s, discovered in early 1900s
Where is the Amazon Rain Forest?
Africa
Egypt:
Who Was King Tut?
Where are the Great Pyramids?
Democratic Republic of the Congo:
Where is the Congo?
Tanzania:
South Africa:
Australia and Pacific
Australia:
Where is the Great Barrier Reef?
Easter Island:
Antarctica
Antarctica:
Who Was Ernest Shackleton? English explorer of the Antarctic
Outer Space
Outer Space:
Where are The Constellations?
Credit:
This list of Who Is books by country was compiled by BooksAroundTheGlobe.com
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