Science books for kids
Step Gently Out
by: Helen Frost, illustrated by: Rick Lieder - (Candlewick, 2012) 32 pages.
Stunning close-up photographs invite readers into the exquisitely beautiful insect world of a Michigan garden. Accompanied by Zen-like poems, the photos reveal the tiny, spectacular strangers all around us sharing our world, if we look closely and quietly. Fascinating facts at the book’s conclusion complement the bug’s-eye view.
Perfect for: Kids who like science and nature.
ind Step Gently Out at your local library.
Everybody Needs a Rock
by: Byrd Baylor, illustrated by: Peter Parnall - (Aladdin, 1985) 32 pages.
A multitude of deep, deceptively simple themes are promoted in this handbook for junior geologists. The story presents 10 rules for finding and keeping a special rock that’ll teach your child the power of observing nature, mindfulness, antimaterialism, aesthetics, and individuality. It’s a book not just for young rock hounds, but for everyone.
Perfect for: Kids who like science and nature.
Find Everybody Needs a Rock at your local library.
Snakes (2012)
by: Nic Bishop - (Scholastic Nonfiction, 2012) 48 pages.
Amazing, terrifying photographs of creepy snakes in their habitat, with many poised to poison or strangle the viewer. Yikes! Twenty-plus legless monsters are featured, including bush viper, Mojave rattlesnake, yellow anaconda, king cobra, and African egg-eating snake. Includes text on behavior, anatomy, and eating habits. Ideal for the young herpetologist.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find Snakes at your local library.
What’s Out There? A Book About Space
by: Lynn Wilson, illustrated by: Paige Billin-Frye - (Grosset & Dunlap, 1993) 32 pages.
Young astronomers will love this simple-to-understand, colorfully illustrated book about the planets, asteroids, and moons of our solar system. Answers to cosmic questions are provided, including: Why does the moon shrink and grow? What is the sun made of? Ideal for children who gaze at the night sky, dreaming of space colonization.
Perfect for: Kids who like astronomy.
Find What’s Out There? A Book About Space at your local library.
ABC ZooBorns!
by: Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland - (Beach Lane Books, 2012) 40 pages.
Aw! So cute! Adorable photographs of baby wild animals, arranged in alphabetical order — A for anteater, B for baboon, C for cheetah, and so on. Your child will want to cuddle and kiss the big-eyed, fuzzy-wuzzy faces while learning all about the animals. Includes short descriptive phrases, a glossary, and conservation information.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find ABC ZooBorns! at your local library.
Bear Has a Story to Tell
by: Phillip C. Stead - (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) 32 pages.
Bear wants to tell a story before he hibernates, but his friends Mouse, Duck, Toad, and Mole are too busy to listen because they’re preparing for winter. Bear helps them with their tasks, postponing his tale until spring. This lovely story conveys nature’s rhythms, the reciprocity of friendship, and patience.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find Bear Has a Story to Tell at your local library.
My First Day: What Animals Do on Day One
by: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, illustrated by: Steve Jenkins - (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013) 32 pages.
What do baby animals do on their first day of life? Are they helpless or frisky? The answer depends on the type of creature. Twenty-three species — including penguins, tigers, and zebras — are presented in this sweet, educational guidebook. Illustrations are three-dimensional collages. Text is first-person, in the baby animal’s voice.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find My First Day: What Animals Do on Day One at your local library.
Green
by: Laura Vaccaro Seeger - (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) 36 pages.
This magical book explores the life-giving color green in all its wide and wonderful shades: forest, lime, khaki, pea, sea, glow, etc. Beautiful cut-out illustrations create multiple-page interactions, with minimal text. Environmental themes are deftly and powerfully presented in this quick-to-read book that your child will pick up over and over.
Perfect for: Kids who like nature.
Find Green at your local library.
First the Egg
by: Laura Vaccaro Seeger - (Roaring Brook Press, 2007) 32 pages.
Vibrant cut-out illustrations packed with ingenious surprises depict the transformative stages of life. Caterpillars become butterflies, tadpoles turn into frogs, seeds become flowers. The magical potential of art is also touched on: “paint turns into pictures,” and “first the word, then the book.” Small things grow up to be extraordinary!
Perfect for: Kids who like to learn how animals grow.
Find First the Egg at your local library.
Infinity and Me
by: Kate Hosford, illustrated by: Gabi Swiatkowska - (21st Century, 2012) 32 pages.
Can a very small girl understand anything as enormous and complicated as infinity? Yes! This quirky philosophical book transforms the mind-numbing concept into a kid-friendly personal story. Silly, graspable ways to contemplate “forever” are presented via ice cream, families, school recess, stars, and shoes. With clever, old-fashioned illustrations.
Perfect for: Kids who like math.
Find Infinity and Me at your local library.
If You Find a Rock
by: Peggy Christian, illustrated by: Barbara Hirsch Lember - (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2008) 32 pages.
Poetic celebration of rocks, pebbles, stones, and boulders. Explores the many ways kids use rocks — from skipping to climbing to making a wish — and where they can best be found. Artfully designed with hand-tinted, black-and-white photographs. Teaches exploration, observation, and appreciation. Ideal for young geologists and creative, outdoorsy kids.
Perfect for: Kids who like rocks and nature.
Find If You Find a Rock at your local library.
Snakes (1992)
by: Seymour Simon - (HarperCollins, 1992) 32 pages.
Four major snake families are presented in this meticulously organized book packed with abundant information on the diet, venom, anatomy, reproduction, behavior, and life cycle of these legless reptiles. Beautiful close-up photography makes every scary scale visible on the fifteen specific species shown, including king cobra. A successful herpetology reference guide. Hiss!
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find Snakes at your local library.
A Warmer World
by: Caroline Arnold, illustrated by: Jamie Hogan - (Charlesbridge, 2012) 32 pages.
Global warming is forcing millions of animal species to adapt their behavior to shorter winters and drastic changes in habitat. With clear explanations, this book describes changes in the life cycles of butterflies, foxes, polar bears, walruses, krill, coral, turtles, penguins, marmots, and other creatures. Accompanied by collage art, a glossary, and a bibliography.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find A Warmer World at your local library.
Animal Grossapedia
by: Melissa Stewart - (Scholastic Paperbacks, 2012) 112 pages.
Poop, spit, vomit, urine, and blood are some of the repulsive attractions in this fun examination of loathsome acts animals do to survive. Giant water bug breathes through its butt, bunny eats its feces, sea cucumber barfs to scare enemies… Ewww! And awesome! Packed with science facts that provide great education during a gruesome gross-out.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find Animal Grossapedia at your local library.
Leopard & Silkie: One Boy’s Quest to Save the Seal Pups
by: Brenda Peterson - (Henry Holt and Co., 2012) 32 pages.
Six-year-old Miles is a “Seal Sitter” in the Pacific Northwest. He organizes rescue missions that keep vigil on baby seals who are temporarily abandoned by their mothers. This kid-friendly page-turner provides excellent photos of adorable, big-eyed seal pups, plus it teaches compassion, perseverance, commitment, and appreciation of nature.
Perfect for: Kids who like sea animals.
Find Leopard & Silkie: One Boy’s Quest to Save the Seal Pups at your local library.
Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep
by: Jennifer Dussling, illustrated by: Pamela Johnson - (Penguin Young Readers, 1999) 48 pages.
In 1997, a New Zealand fishing boat hauled a surprise catch from the deep: a dark red, dead, 25-foot giant squid. The mysterious creature, previously unseen in intact form, was given to scientists at the American Museum of Natural History. Includes soft, majestic illustrations and intriguing facts about the huge cephalopod.
Perfect for: Kids who like sea animals.
Find Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep at your local library.
Redwoods
by: Jason Chin - (Flash Point, 2009) 40 pages.
While riding on a subway, a boy becomes absorbed in a book about the ancient, immense California redwoods. As he reads, his surroundings change from urban underground to skyscraper-high redwood canopy. The fantastical tale is packed with facts about these spectacular natural wonders, and illustrated with soft, vivid watercolors.
Perfect for: Kids who like nature.
Find Redwoods at your local library.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
by: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, illustrated by: Elizabeth Zunon - (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012) 32 pages.
True, inspiring story of a 14-year-old boy in Malawi who saved his famine-threatened village by constructing a windmill out of junkyard scrap metal. The contraption — from a design in an 8th grade textbook — provided electricity for irrigation for village crops. Dynamic reading for problem-solving, gadget-loving, junior engineers, with gorgeous oil and collage illustrations.
Perfect for: Kids who like stories about real people.
Find The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind at your local library.
Chimpanzees – Fun and Fascinating Facts and Pictures
by: Andrew Miller - (Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2013) 38 pages.
This fun picture book about humanity’s closest cousins is screeching with great ape information. Numerous questions about chimpanzee daily life are answered: what they eat, where they sleep, how they play together, what they do when they have a tummy ache. Chimp-loving children will laugh as they learn — they’ll go bananas!
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Available only via Kindle.
Waiting for Ice
by: Sandra Markle, illustrated by: Alan Marks - (Charlesbridge, 2012) 32 pages.
A hungry orphan polar bear cub is desperate to find food. She can’t hunt because global warming has delayed the formation of pack ice that she needs to reach her marine-mammal prey. Based on an actual episode documented by a scientist, with poetic text and expressive illustrations.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find Waiting for Ice at your local library.
The Snake Book
by: Mary Ling, Christopher Mattison, Mary Atkinson, Frank Greenaway, Dave King - (DK Children, 2000) 32 pages.
Young reptile-lovers will happily slither over to this guidebook on the 3,000 species of snakes in the world. They’ll coil up and enjoy the gorgeous photographs, the detailed directory of 18 snake families, and the creepy categories like venom, camouflage, reproduction, and attack methods. Special attention is devoted to endangered and little-known species.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find The Snake Book at your local library.
Universe
by: Robin Kerrod - (DK Children, 2009) 72 pages.
Extremely informative guide with vivid photographs, CD, and wall chart. Includes every celestial topic your young astronaut is curious about: black holes, supergiant red stars, nebulae, Martian volcanoes, pulsars, interior of Jupiter, future of the universe, plus concepts like gravity, magnetism, and atomic structure. The sky’s not the limit here!
Perfect for: Kids who like astronomy.
Find Universe at your local library.
The One and Only Ivan
by: Katherine Applegate - (HarperCollins, 2012) 320 pages.
Ivan is a trapped gorilla exhibited behind glass in an American mall. He doesn’t recall his jungle past, and he thinks he’s happy, until his friendship with a baby elephant re-awakens his stifled emotions and memories. This sweet, heart-breaking-but-funny tale presents unforgettable characters and raises profound questions about how humans treat animals. Based on a true story.
Perfect for: Kids who like animal stories and stories based on something that really happened.
Find The One and Only Ivan at your local library.
Puffling Patrol
by: Ted Lewin, illustrated by: Betsy Lewin - (Lee & Low Books, 2012) 56 pages.
Atlantic puffins breed every spring on Iceland’s Westman Islands. When the adult birds fly south for the winter, they abandon their vulnerable chicks. The fledgling pufflings follow their parents, but often get lost and land in human settlements, where they’re carefully rescued. Compassion is illustrated here with gorgeous watercolors and whimsical drawings.
Perfect for: Kids who like animals.
Find Puffling Patrol at your local library.
Coral Reefs
by: Jason Chin - (Flash Point, 2011) 40 pages.
A girl reading a book about coral reefs is magically transported to a tropical coral lagoon, where she encounters the exquisite creatures that hunt and hide in this beautiful ecosystem. Facts and fantasy mingle gracefully, like sea horses in a kelp forest. Global warning’s threat to coral reefs is soberly presented.
Perfect for: Kids who like the deep ocean.
Find Coral Reefs at your local library.
I, Galileo
by: Bonnie Christensen - (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2012) 40 pages.
Galileo himself narrates this kid-friendly autobiography in a warm tone that successfully connects young readers to his astronomic insights. The “Father of modern science” invented the telescope, microscope, and compass, but he was jailed as a heretic and fired as a university professor for disproving Aristotle. Includes chronology and Renaissance-style illustrations.
Perfect for: Kids who like astronomy.
Find I, Galileo at your local library.
Survival at 120 Above
by: Debbie S. Miller, illustrated by: Jon Van Zyle - (Walker Childrens, 2012) 40 pages.
What kind of creatures survive in scorching desert environments that have 120-plus temperatures? This crisp book, blazing with information, features skinks, sand goannas, thorny devils, and other hardy animals who thrive in Australia’s hostile Simpson Desert. With a glossary, pronunciation guide, and sizzling acrylic paintings.
Perfect for: Kids who like desert animals.
Find Survival at 120 Above at your local library.