You never forget the first chapter books you read by yourself. Like many, I spent days getting lost in Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobiographical rendering of her family’s westward journey and frontier life; Little Women, Louisa May Alcott’s classic tale about four creative sisters navigating the transition to adulthood in 1860s Massachusetts ; and Maud Hart Lovelace’s beloved series Betsy-Tacy, considered among the first YA novels, chronicling two best friends growing up together at the turn of the 20th century. These authors decided that their lives were worth writing down—and, in the process, gave us a window into American history as seen through the eyes of young women. Last summer, I visited the small towns in which Wilder, Alcott, and Lovelace grew up, where their childhood homes are still preserved. At each stop, I met adults like me for whom the stories had meant so much, and young children reading them for the first time. They clutched their hardcovers.…