One of the many things I appreciate about picture books (there are so many) is how many can actually teach us something. And not just my boys! I haven't taken a science class since, I think, 2003, but I feel like I've gained a shallow knowledge on so many subjects thanks to the thousands of picture books we read. Yes, some books are just for fun or are helping build emotionally stronger kids BUT, so many we read are also teaching us about historical events, amazing people, and so much about the world around us.
We checked out around 2000 picture books in 2021. I did not add a zero, I do mean two thousand. And it is not easy to find 2000 quality, or nearly all quality, picture books to check out. It takes a decent amount of work to keep track of book lists, figure out if we've read them, and see if they are in our library system (and then submit a purchase request if they aren't). I spend more time reading to the boys than organizing their reading lives but the organizing still takes maybe an hour a week?
One thing that really helps us find good books is a good series. Just like I can appreciate a good series for myself when I am looking for books to read or books to keep Luke busy reading himself, I really appreciate when I scan a good picture book into Goodreads and find out there are a whole bunch of similar ones by the same author covering different topics! It's a delight to know we will have a bunch more good books to read, once I've gotten them to our house (it's EXTRA exciting if they are on the shelf at our small branch and don't have to use a precious hold on them).
The STEM-ish books seem particularly ripe for series, particularly about animals (we are being a bit generous on what qualifies as STEM but learning about animals definitely have a science aspect!). Even if my boys don't remember all the details of what we've read (and there is no way they can), just having a faint memory to attach to when something comes up in a different book or at school, really helps them build on those memories. And I am constantly learning too!
A big thanks to my sister, Erin, for her suggestion for this post and for filling my texts with suggestions at 6:11am one morning after I asked if she had any more to add. She is the only person I know personally who reads more picture books than we do. And she helped me fill up my library to get list after we were both lamenting that our lists were in the 50s!
Here's some great STEM (ish) series that we've enjoyed! Go learn about our wonderful world!
1) The Questionners (Ada Twist) by Andrea Beaty
Five different books about five students in the same class in school (4th ish grade?), an engineer, a scientist, an architect, a future prez, and an illustrator. Luke has enjoyed picking out the kids from previous books in whichever one we are reading and they've taught us all about those occupations from the perspective of some genius kids. Also, they rhyme and I always appreciate a good rhymed book.
2) Over and Under by Kate Messner
These are gorgeous and SO informative about the animal and plant life happening above and below the surface of a pond, a garden, the rainforest, the snow, and a canyon (which doesn't show with this series on Goodreads but should). We own a few of them and it was fascinating to see what could be happening right under our feet!
3) One Day on our Blue Planet by Ella Bailey
These were just a 2021 find and have such fun pictures about different animal life around our beautiful blue planet. Goodreads doesn't recognize these as a series but here is the Savannah, the Antarctic, the Ocean, the Rainforest, and the Outback.
4) If _______ Disappeared by Lily Williams
This was another 2021 find that taught us SO MUCH about the food chains and how important each animal can be to the survival of our planet. All for different reasons but also all important! Another one Goodreads doesn't recognize as a series but here is Sharks, Polar Bears, Elephants, Bees, and the upcoming Tigers.
5) Our Universe by Stacy McAnulty
Books about space is a whole subgenre that we've really read many of and have quite enjoyed. America put a man on the moon over 50 years ago and we're all still a bit fascinated by what is out there. These are about Earth, Sun, Moon, Ocean, and Mars, each told of that planet/celestial body/ocean's point of view. We like these so much we own 4/5 of them.
6) I'm Trying to Love _________ by Bethany Barton
The original, I'm Trying to love Spiders is a classic around here, there is few things more delightful to a kid in a picture book than trying to squish a spider between it's pages. I'll admit, I also need some help learning to love spiders and we learned some amazing things about them. There's also Rocks, Math, and Give Bees a Chance.
7) Who Would Win? series by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated by Rob Bolster
This was ALSO a 2021 find (did we read any STEM books before last year?!?!?) that was a treasure trove because our library branch actually had almost every single one of the 25 books on the shelf at a time when we were hurting for new picture books to read. I checked about 20 of them out in one day. These pit two animals against each other to see who might have the advantage in a fight, even if they might be two different dinosaurs who lived on different continents millions of years apart. I definitely mangle a lot of the scientific names but, again, so interesting to learn about so many animals. And my boys like that almost every book ends with a fight.
8) 10 Reasons to Love a __________ by Catherine Barr
Again, lots of fun facts about animals and how important they each can be. Turtle is probably our favorite here but there is also Penguin, Bear, Lion, Whale, and Elephant!
9) How to Code with Pearl & Pascal by Josh Funk
I will admit to knowing almost nothing about coding (really...nearly nothing) and it seems like something that is highly useful and worthwhile in this tech based world. These (two) books introduce some basic coding concepts in a fun way with a sandcastle and roller coaster, two things kids find appealing!
10) Wild Kratts books by Chris and Martin Kratt
There are more books than just the easy readers linked here but too many for me to hunt down the dozens of links (if you search either brother's name in your library app it should pull up a whole bunch). Wild Kratts is one of my favorite shows for my kids to watch because they learn so much about the animal kingdom AND there is an episode for almost all of their favorite animals (like Lemurs and Hammerheads. These air on PBS Kids sometimes I think but we also have 2 seasons available for us to checkout through our library Hoopla. But the books are also great, of course teaching about animals and animal families.
11) Cece Loves Science by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes
There are 6 books in a variety of reading levels in this series about 3 different, not white (diversity!) girls who love different parts of science. My boys don't look like these girls for a variety of reasons but I still appreciate the message that girls can do science just like boys.
12) Curious Concepts for Kids by Andi Diehn
I'm starting to think I need to reorganize some things on Goodreads (out of my control) because this one isn't listed as a series either. This series takes very actual science concepts and breaks them down in easy to understand ways. We just happened to read Luke the Forces one shortly before the subject was taught at school! Here is Forces, Waves, Energy, and Matter.
Go forth and learn something new! And I'd love to hear if you have any more great series for us to try!
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