To the Top of the World: Barbara Hillary, the First Black Woman to Reach the North and South Poles

By Deborah Blumenthal

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. 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

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1665927739
• ISBN13: 9781665927734
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Length: 40 Pages
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 10.0" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Grade 3