Science is For Girls: Books About Girls & Women in Science
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Girls and women are curious, intelligent, persistent, and bold: it's no wonder they can be such good scientists! While women in STEM have fought prejudice for years — much of which still lingers today — they've also made important discoveries, world-changing inventions, and helped humanity make great leaps in our understanding of our planet, the universe, and more.
One way to support women in science is to share their stories with kids during Women's History Month and all year round! When young readers see women scientists in their books, it changes their image of who can be a scientist — and that not only encourages girls with an interest in STEM, but also counters the male-dominated stereotype of science for all children. To help make it easier to find titles to share with kids, we’re featuring a round-up of engaging books highlighting girls and women in science.
From picture book biographies of little-known pioneers to graphic novels about trailblazing women, and even a book or two to get your kids experimenting at home, these titles will ensure that they know that science is definitely for girls.
Abby Invents: The Foldibot, by Arlyne Simon. Illustrated by Diana Necsulescu. (2022 Finalist: Children’s Science Picture Book)
Abby thinks folding laundry is boring. Very boring. There are washing machines and dryers. There must be folding machines, too! Team up with Abby and Cousin Miko as they invent the world's first, at-home, the laundry-folding machine - the Foldibot! The first prototype does not work. Neither does the second. But, Abby is not afraid of failure. How many tries will it take? Share Abby's joy as she earns her second patent, where her first was the unbreakable crayon! Through Abby's failures and eventual success, she playfully introduces young readers to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEM).
Beauty and the Beak: How Science, Technology, and a 3D-Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle, by Deborah Lee Rose and Jane Veltkamp. (2018 Winner: Children’s Science Picture Book)
Beauty and the Beak is the incredible true story about an injured wild bald eagle who received a pioneering, 3D-printed beak―and made world news! Follow Beauty close up and in photographs, from the moment she uses her baby beak to emerge from her egg, through her hunt when she uses her powerful adult beak to feed herself, to the day her beak is illegally shot off, leaving her helpless. This brave and uplifting story continues through her rescue, into the months of engineering her 3D-printed prosthetic beak and intense hours of her beak surgery, to the moment she takes the first drink of water by herself with her new beak.
Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures, by Roma Agrawal. (2019 Winner: Young Adult Science Book).
While our cities are full of incredible engineering feats, most of us live with little idea of what goes into creating the built environment, let alone how a new building goes up, what it is constructed upon, or how it remains standing. In Built, star structural engineer Roma Agrawal explains how construction has evolved from the mud huts of our ancestors to skyscrapers of steel that reach into the sky. She unearths how humans have tunneled through solid mountains; how we've walked across the widest of rivers, and tamed nature's precious water resources. She tells vivid tales of the visionaries who created the groundbreaking materials used to build the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower; and explains how careful engineering can minimize tragedies like the collapse of the Quebec Bridge. Interweaving science, history, illustrations, and personal stories, Built offers a fascinating window into a subject that makes up the foundation of our everyday lives.
Eclipse Chaser: Science in the Moon's Shadow, by Ilima Loomis. Photographs by Amanda Cowan. (2021 Finalist: Middle Grades Science Book)
On August 21, 2017, much of America stood still and looked up as a wide swath of the country experienced totality—a full solar eclipse. Even in areas outside the path of totality, people watched in awe as the moon cast its shadow on the sun. For most, this was simply a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Not so for Shadia Habbal, who travels the world in search of solar eclipses in order to study the sun’s corona. Solar wind and storms originating in the corona can have big effects on our planet. They can disrupt technology, expose aircraft to radiation, and even influence global climate change. In the months leading up to the 2017 eclipse, Shadia assembles a team of scientists to set up camp with her in Mitchell, Oregon. Years earlier, a long, expensive trip to Indonesia to study an eclipse failed when the skies remained too cloudy to see it. Shadia is determined to have the 2017 eclipse be a success. Will the computers fail? Will smoke from nearby fires change direction? Will the cloudy skies clear in time?
Kid Scientists: True Tales of Childhood From Science Superstars (2020 Finalist: Middle Grades Science Book)
Every great scientist started out as a kid. Before their experiments, inventions, and discoveries that changed the world, the world's most celebrated scientists had regular-kid problems just like you. Jane Goodall got in trouble for bringing worms and snails into her house. Rachel Carson became a published writer for children’s magazines by age 10. Hear other stories from Temple Grandin, Nikola Tesla, Ada Lovelace, Rosalind Franklin, Sally Ride, and Vera Rubin.
Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren. (2017 Winner: Young Adult Science Book)
Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she's studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren's remarkable stories: about the things she's discovered in her lab as well as how she got there; about her childhood - hours of unfettered play in her father's laboratory; about how she found a sanctuary in science and learned to perform lab work "with both the heart and the hands"; about a brilliant and wounded man named Bill, who became her loyal colleague and best friend; about their adventurous, sometimes rogue research trips, which take them from the Midwest all across the United States and over the Atlantic, from the ever-light skies of the North Pole to tropical Hawaii; and about her constant striving to do and be the best she could, never allowing personal or professional obstacles to cloud her dedication to her work. Jahren's probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her insights on nature enliven every minute of this book. Lab Girl allows us to see with clear eyes the beautiful, sophisticated mechanisms within every leaf, blade of grass, and flower petal and the power within ourselves to face - with bravery and conviction - life's ultimate challenge: discovering who we are.
Ms. Adventure: My Wild Explorations in Science, Lava, and Life, by Jess Phoenix. (2022 Finalist: Young Adult Science Book)
As a volcanologist, natural hazards expert, and founder of Blueprint Earth, Jess Phoenix has dedicated her life to scientific exploration. Her career path - hard-earned in the still male-dominated world of science - has shoved her headlong into deep-sea submersibles, congressional races, glittering cocktail parties at Manhattan’s elite Explorers Club, and numerous pairs of Caterpillar work boots. It has also inspired her to devote her life to making science more inclusive and accessible. Ms. Adventure skillfully blends personal memoir, daring adventure, scientific exploration, and girl power, following Phoenix’s journey from jungles to glaciers, university classrooms to television studios, and even to the side of the world’s largest volcano, where she fixes a tire with a ballpoint pen, bubblegum, and duct tape.
Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist, by Jess Keating. Illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens. (2018 Finalist: Children's Science Picture Book)
Eugenie Clark fell in love with sharks from the first moment she saw them at the aquarium. She couldn't imagine anything more exciting than studying these graceful creatures. But Eugenie quickly discovered that many people believed sharks to be ugly and scary―and they didn't think women should be scientists. Determined to prove them wrong, Eugenie devoted her life to learning about sharks. After earning several college degrees and making countless discoveries, Eugenie wrote herself into the history of science, earning the nickname "Shark Lady." Through her accomplishments, she taught the world that sharks were to be admired rather than feared and that women can do anything they set their minds to. An inspiring story by critically acclaimed zoologist Jess Keating about finding the strength to discover truths that others aren't daring enough to see.
Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor, by Robert Burleigh. Illustrated by Raúl Colón. (2017 Finalist: Children's Science Picture Book).
Marie Tharp was always fascinated by the ocean. Taught to think big by her father who was a mapmaker, Marie wanted to do something no one had ever done before: map the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Was it even possible? Not sure if she would succeed, Marie decided to give it a try. Throughout history, others had tried and failed to measure the depths of the oceans. Sailors lowered weighted ropes to take measurements. Even today, scientists are trying to measure the depth by using echo sounder machines to track how long it would take a sound wave sent from a ship to the sea floor to come back. But for Marie, it was like piecing together an immense jigsaw puzzle. Despite past failures and challenges—sometimes Marie would be turned away from a ship because having a woman on board was “bad luck”—Marie was determined to succeed. And she did, becoming the first person to chart the ocean floor, helping us better understand the planet we call home.
Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World, by Sy Montgomery. (2013 Winner: Middle Grades Science Book)
When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew she was different. Years later she was diagnosed with autism. Temple’s doctor recommended institutionalizing her, but her mother believed in her. Temple went to school instead. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin, a scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University, is an autism advocate and her world-changing career revolutionized the livestock industry. This compelling biography and Temple's personal photos take us inside her extraordinary mind and open the door to a broader understanding of autism.
The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal and a Marine Biologist’s Fight to Save a Species, by Terri Williams. (2013 Winner: Young Adult Science Book).
Only eleven hundred Hawaiian monk seals survive in the wild. Without intervention, they face certain extinction within fifty years. When a two-day-old Hawaiian monk seal pup, later named Kauai Pup 2, or KP2, is attacked and abandoned by his mother on a beach, he is rushed off on a journey that will take him across the ocean to the California marine lab of eminent wildlife biologist Dr. Terrie M. Williams. As Williams works with the boisterous KP2 to save his species, she forms a lasting bond with him that illustrates the importance of the survival of all earth’s creatures and the health of the world’s oceans.
The Science and Technology of Marie Curie, by Julie Knutson. Illustrated by Michelle Simpson. (2022 Finalist: Hands-On Science Book)
Explore Curie’s groundbreaking scientific research in physics and chemistry and discover how her work forced people to rethink the very structure of the surrounding world and the role of women within it. Her commitment to understanding things the human eye can’t even see led to the discovery of two new elements―polonium and radium―and to the birth of a new field of research around radioactivity. In the process, she became the first woman to earn a Nobel Prize and the only person ever to win two Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields, all as she reset society’s ideas about women’s roles in society. By learning about the work of Marie Curie, kids gain insight into the atomic universe through hands-on STEM activities, essential questions, text-to-world connections, and links to online resources that encourage readers to take a closer look into everything going on around them.
When Sue Found Sue: Sue Hendrickson Discovers Her T.Rex, by Toni Buzzeo. Illustrated by Diana Sudyka. (2020 Finalist: Children’s Science Picture Book)
From a very young age, Sue Hendrickson was meant to find things: lost coins, perfume bottles, even hidden treasure. Her endless curiosity eventually led to her career in diving and paleontology, where she would continue to find things big and small. In 1990, at a dig in South Dakota, Sue made her biggest discovery to date: Sue the T. rex, the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever unearthed. Named in Sue’s honor, Sue the T. rex would be placed on permanent exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. When Sue Found Sue inspires readers to take a closer look at the world around them and to never lose their brave, adventurous spirits.
We know this doesn’t include everything, so feel free to add to our list by commenting below. You may also have an interest in a few historical woman figures in this AAAS video or discover a few women who are forging new pathways in STEM.