Our theme for this year’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month is “Advancing Leaders Through Innovation.” For this booklist, we selected twelve picture books celebrating a diverse group of leaders – athletes, engineers, members of Congress, physicists, singers, activists, and adventurers – who have one thing in common: they thrive on challenges. Many of the biographies in our list were written by authors who have a personal connection to the subjects of their books: Emeline Lee and Reem Faruqi wrote about their grandparents, Simran Jeet Singh wrote about a fellow Sikh, Christina Soontornvat about a fellow Thai, Dawn Bohulano Mabalon about a fellow Filipino, and so on. This goes to show that the spirit of innovation lasts only as long as the generations who pass it down. We hope these stories inspire you and your young readers to do the same.