Skip to main content

Five Faves: Scientist Picture Books

There are so many new things to explore and learn about in the world. Scientists ask questions and then do experiments to find answers. Even young people can be scientists by doing their own research, asking questions, and working to find answers. Here are a couple of picture books about young scientists with big ideas!

Written by Betsy Ellor
Illustrated by Luisa Vera
San Diego, CA : Yeehoo Press, 2023. Picture Book.

Yara is getting ready for the science fair at her school where she hopes to be able to prove that she is a scientist and beat Eddie, who wins every year. Yara starts to try all kinds of experiments but her dog, Renzo, keeps messing everything up! She gets worried that she won't be able to succeed with her goal.

Written by Beth Ferry
Illustrated by Lorena Alvarez
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. Picture Book.

Martha is a scientist that tries to use the scientific method to make friends so she will have people to invite to her birthday party. She ends up creating a super-magnetic helmet to try to attract friends with her "magnetic" personality. Will her magnetic hat really help her make friends?

By Nora Brech
Edinburgh : Floris Books, 2022. Picture Book.

These scientists find out that a rare bird called a Rainbow Bird is close to being extinct and set out on a journey to find and save this bird. They find all sorts of other birds along the way. This picture book has beautiful illustrations and more information in the back of the book on ways that scientists help save endangered animals.  

Written by Kimberly Derting & Shelli R. Johannes
Illustrated by Joelle Murray
New York, NY : Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020. Picture Book.

Libby and her friends are in charge of a running a science booth at their school festival. They come up with all kinds of fun experiments that people can take part in. At first no one is coming to their booth, but they find a way to attract a crowd and enjoy their time. This books has instruction in the back on how to do each of the experiments that are talked about during the story! 

Written by Michelle Schaub
Illustrated by Alice Potter
Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, 2020. Picture Book.

Even scientists need to sleep and this is the perfect bedtime story to read before bed. This book features diverse children scientists of all kinds going to bed. It shows an astronaut, a botanist, a physicist, a anthropologist, and many others. Each page is so detailed and shows a variety of fun STEM themed rooms with each child.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.

Review: The New Girl

The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...