
To the Top of the World
Barbara Hillary, the First Black Woman to Reach the North and South Poles
Atheneum Books for Young Readers · Print & ebook · October 21, 2025
Go exploring with Barbara Hillary, the first Black woman to set foot on both the North and South Poles in this thrilling and inspiring picture book biography about perseverance, imagination, and following your dreams.
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- Who it’s for
- Follow Barbara Hillary’s path from childhood dreams of adventure to the North and South Poles.
- Themes
- Perseverance, Polar exploration, Climate advocacy
- Genres
- Biographies of Women for Kids, Polar Regions, Protecting the Planet
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Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Biographies of Women for Kids.
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Where Is Antarctica?Sarah Fabiny50% matchAlso shares Polar Regions
For older readers: Skiing Into the Bright Open, Polar Exposure, Cold
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Go exploring with Barbara Hillary, the first Black woman to set foot on both the North and South Poles in this thrilling and inspiring picture book biography about perseverance, imagination, and following your dreams. As a young girl, Barbara Hillary imagined a life of adventure. Despite facing hardships in her childhood and illness as an adult, she never gave up on her dream: to travel the world and explore hard-to-reach places.
Continue reading
So, at age seventy-five, she became the first Black woman to set foot on the North Pole. Less than four years later, she did the same at the South Pole. Barbara loved everything the world has to offer. During her travels, she discovered that the remote places she cared so much about were threatened by climate change. From then on, she dedicated herself to saving the planet for future generations. She never let her age—or anything else—stop her until she stood at the top of the world!
Hillary’s Polar Journeys
Follow Barbara Hillary’s path from childhood dreams of adventure to the North and South Poles.
Come here for
- Barbara Hillary’s journeys to the North and South Poles
- Her later dedication to protecting the planet
Expect
- A biography of perseverance through childhood hardships and adult illness
- Polar travel and concern about climate change
Where it sits
| Polar Regions | 67% |
|---|---|
| Biographies of Women for Kids | 66% |
| Protecting the Planet | 44% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Biographies of Women for Kids
- African American Life (U.S.)
- Polar Regions
- Authors
- Deborah Blumenthal
- Publisher
- Atheneum Books for Young Readers
- Published
- October 21, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Perseverance · Polar exploration · Climate advocacy
- Reading lane
- Biographies of Women for Kids