The best books for kids starring math, bugs and strong girls

Jeannine Atkins Author Of Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math
By Jeannine Atkins

Who am I?

I was a girl who looked under rocks. Besides caring about crawling things and forests, I liked to read and write about history, which became the passion I followed into college and a career. No regrets, but I sometimes wonder what might have become of me if an interest in science was more encouraged and I was nudged past my fear of math. 


I wrote...

Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math

By Jeannine Atkins,

Book cover of Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math

What is my book about?

In Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math, free verse introduces some scientists who always found joy in math as well as those who found parts of it tough, but kept at it until they saw its beauty. Paths taken include astronomy, statistics, and physics, shown in the context of lives in which friendship and family matter a lot, too.

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The books I picked & why

Ten, Nine, Eight

By Molly Bang,

Book cover of Ten, Nine, Eight

Why did I love this book?

This classic book, in board book form or paperback, is spare of words with bold pictures. A red carpet and green walls are set against a child’s bright yellow gown. A tender story mixes in elementary math, offering the charm of counting backwards. Soothing for bedtime, it’s one of my favorite gifts for the very youngest.

By Molly Bang,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ten, Nine, Eight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Caldecott Honor Book and ALA Notable Book

A bedtime book and a counting book!

“A delightful bedtime book.”—New York Times

Acclaimed author Molly Bang shares the going-to-bed countdown in a loving family. “Ten small toes all washed and warm,” begins the story, and then young readers journey toward tuck-in time, counting down along with the story’s African-American father and daughter.

In the satisfying conclusion, one little sleepyhead settles in for the night. An award-winning classic, Ten, Nine, Eight has been comforting and delighting children and their parents for more than thirty years.

“This beguiling picture book, with a palette…


100 Bugs!: A Counting Book

By Kate Narita, Suzanne Kaufman (illustrator),

Book cover of 100 Bugs!: A Counting Book

Why did I love this book?

This is a busy book in the best of ways. Counting is a start toward exploring the beauty and joy of creeping or flying bugs and the places they make as their homes. Honestly, what can be more fun to count than a variety of colorful bugs? We’re introduced to various ways to reach one hundred, an exhilarating number to aim for.

By Kate Narita, Suzanne Kaufman (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 100 Bugs! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Little explorers will learn 10 different ways to count to 10, using 10 different kinds of bugs, and get all the way to 100 by the end of their adventure. With Suzanne Kaufman's bright, whimsical illustrations and Kate Narita's clever rhyming text, 100 Bugs! is part look-and-find, part learning experience, and all kinds of fun.


Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives

By Lola M. Schaefer, Christopher Silas Neal (illustrator),

Book cover of Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives

Why did I love this book?

There’s plenty to count on the pages, but this book soars by stressing the repetition of events in the lifetimes of spiders, snakes, kangaroos, and other animals. The word “amazing” in the title sets a bar that’s met as we learn that a woodpecker will drill thirty holes in trees. A giraffe will sport 200 spots. And there’s much more for eager readers to count.

By Lola M. Schaefer, Christopher Silas Neal (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lifetime as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In one lifetime, a caribou will shed 10 sets of antlers, a woodpecker will drill 30 roosting holes, a giraffe will wear 200 spots, a seahorse will birth 1,000 babies. Count each one and many more while learning about the wondrous things that can happen in just one lifetime. This extraordinary book collects animal information not available anywhere else-and shows all 30 roosting holes, all 200 spots, and, yes!, all 1,000 baby seahorses in eye-catching illustrations.
A book about picturing numbers and considering the endlessly fascinating lives all around us, Lifetime is sure to delight young nature lovers.


Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer

By Diane Stanley, Jessie Hartland (illustrator),

Book cover of Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer

Why did I love this book?

The daughter of a poet and a scientific mother, Ada is shown growing up in the early 1800s with both imagination and a bent toward math. As a girl, she dreams of building a steam-powered flying horse. She’s fascinated by machines and eager to tour factories. Seeing how cards are used to set patterns for cloth on looms inspires her to create the first computer program. Whimsical illustrations adorn clear explanations of calculations. At the book’s end we see Ada in red-striped stockings and green goggles flying over symbols of some of what her ideas will bring to the world.

By Diane Stanley, Jessie Hartland (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From nonfiction stars Diane Stanley and Jessie Hartland comes a beautifully illustrated biography of Ada Lovelace, who is known as the first computer programmer.
Two hundred years ago, a daughter was born to the famous poet, Lord Byron, and his mathematical wife, Annabella.
Like her father, Ada had a vivid imagination and a creative gift for connecting ideas in original ways. Like her mother, she had a passion for science, math, and machines. It was a very good combination. Ada hoped that one day she could do something important with her creative and nimble mind.
A hundred years before the…


Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain

By Cheryl Bardoe, Barbara McClintock (illustrator),

Book cover of Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain

Why did I love this book?

Here’s another picture book featuring a woman from another century who loved math. The story of this trailbreaker is told lyrically with the title occasionally echoing.  We see the failures inevitable when one sets a difficult mathematical quest -- to understand patterns in vibrations -- as well as setbacks due to gender bias. Painting and collages are joyfully animated, including numbers hurtling through the background.

By Cheryl Bardoe, Barbara McClintock (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Nothing Stopped Sophie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The true story of eighteenth-century mathematician Sophie Germain, who solved the unsolvable to achieve her dream.

When her parents took away her candles to keep their young daughter from studying math...nothing stopped Sophie. When a professor discovered that the homework sent to him under a male pen name came from a woman...nothing stopped Sophie. And when she tackled a math problem that male scholars said would be impossible to solve...still, nothing stopped Sophie.

For six years Sophie Germain used her love of math and her undeniable determination to test equations that would predict patterns of vibrations. She eventually became the…


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One Giant Leap

By Ben Gartner,

Book cover of One Giant Leap

Ben Gartner Author Of The Eye of Ra

New book alert!

Who am I?

I love to read a good action-adventure story. I’ve also written a few. And I know that no matter how high the stakes, if there’s no heart in the characters then there’s very little engagement to make it any more memorable than a temporary thrill. I love thrills, but the stories that stick with you after the excitement of the moment is over, those are the true gems. Besides the fun of reading that type of book, maybe you even learn something about yourself or the world and come out a wee bit wiser than when you went in. And isn’t that a fantastic use of our imaginative powers?!

Ben's book list on new action-packed middle grade with heart

What is my book about?

I’m pretty sure I’m about to die in space. And I just turned twelve and a half.

Blast off with the four winners of the StellarKid Project on a trip to the International Space Station and then to the Gateway outpost orbiting the Moon! It’s a dream come true until space junk collides with the ISS, turning their epic trip into a nightmare of survival. Alone aboard the Aether starship, the kids have to work as a team to save the adults before the ISS is destroyed. Suit up, cadet, and launch into adventure with One Giant Leap!

By Ben Gartner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Giant Leap as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I’m pretty sure I’m about to die in space. And I just turned twelve and a half.

Blast off with the four winners of the StellarKid Project on a trip to the International Space Station and then to the Gateway outpost orbiting the Moon! It’s a dream come true until space junk collides with the ISS, turning their epic trip into a nightmare of survival. Alone aboard the Aether starship, the kids have to work as a team to save the adults before the ISS is destroyed. Suit up, cadet, and launch into adventure with One Giant Leap!

Praise for…


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