I love encouraging kids to explore engineering, design, and technology! I am a former Google product designer for kids and families. I started writing to address a growing need for coding education, particularly for girls and kids of color. Stories are a wonderful way to demonstrate concepts and to invite kids to approach STEM with creativity and imagination. I picked a range of books for this post, from non-fiction to fantastic, because different kids will respond to different kinds of stories. Through these books, I hope that kids will find inspiration and tools for creative problem-solving, for STEM and beyond.
Written by Ruth Spiro and illustrated by Holly Hatam, this book celebrates the Maker spirit through the story of Maxine, who is determined to help her goldfish march in the pet parade. With fun illustrations, readers will enjoy seeing Maxine’s imaginative inventions as she tries, struggles, and overcomes obstacles to solve the problem.
Maxine loves making new things from old things. She loves tinkering until she has solved a problem. She also loves her pet goldfish, Milton. So when it's time for her school's pet parade, she's determined to create something that will allow Milton to march with the other animals. Finally, after trying, trying, and trying again, she discovers just the right combination of recycled odds and ends to create a fun, functional - and absolutely fabulous - solution to her predicament.
Growing up in Iran, I never thought I would one day become an author in a language other than my mother tongue, and live clear across the world from my birthplace. An eclectic assortment of literature, representing core human themes of thinking, love, laughter, and science are subjects that help me bond with my fellow humans. Books have constantly reassured me of our similarities and encouraged me to make connections. The magical threads of our shared humanity are tools which help us thrive in our global village. They remind us we are more similar to one another than we may think.
In The Little Black Fish, our hero is the black fish who observes, thinks, and decides to do things his or her way. The picture book was banned in Iran because the author of the book, a beloved school teacher and thinker, spoke up passionately to advocate for children. When I lived in Iran, the country was managed by one person, the king. When one king or one idea rules with absolute power, people have minimal or no say in the way their country and lives are managed. Rulers at the top are happiest when people do not read, think, or protest the ways that their society is run. This gorgeous book encourages thinking, analyzing, speaking up, and action.
(Mina Javaherbin has read Little Black Fish in its original text, Persian. She has informed us of numerous translations of this book in English and numerous languages. This particular translation…
Little Black Fish may be small, but he has big questions about the world and the determination to find answers to them. Despite his mother's and the other fish warning him of the perils of leaving their safe haven, Little Black Fish swims over the edge of the pool, into the stream towards the river and to the sea. On his adventure Little Black Fish sees many wondrous and beautiful things, encounters danger lurking around every corner and finally is faced with his ultimate challenge...
A beautiful book about freedom, self-determination, courage and power, it's about a little fish who…
I was a classroom teacher for 15 years who transitioned to writing children’s books. Starting with picture books, I now write graphic novels. My target audience is 2nd-5th graders and they really get my wacky sense of humor. My passion for silly comedy, from Abbott and Costello to the Marx Brothers, started at an early age and infuses my mission to help reluctant readers become enthusiastic and proficient readers. I feel strongly about this goal because I was once a reluctant reader and I can appreciate what these kids might be going through.
I’ve been a big fan since I started reading his picture books to my daughter. His whimsical-and wacky sense of humor is always on target for early readers.
In Tedd's latest work, the silly graphic–novel series, Noodleheads, he is ably assisted by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss.
The Noodleheads are a couple of pieces of hollow pasta (that’s right!) who don’t have the slightest idea how to solve the simplest of problems.
Planning to go fishing, they believe a toy boat will grow into a full-size rowboat if they give it food. (Somehow it does!)
Arnold’s inimitable illustrations combined with a ridiculous, pun-filled story will have young children chuckling on every page!
Can a toy boat grow into a real boat? Mac and Mac think so. You'll laugh out loud at the funny adventures in this comic-style book.
Mac and Mac, as gullible as ever, decide that since fish live in schools, they must be smart. The fish in this funny story certainly are smart enough to outwit Mac and Mac--and so is their friend Meatball, who shows them how to get a bigger boat. But there's something fishy about his suggestion. . .
Illustrated by Tedd Arnold, whose Fly Guy series is a kid favorite, this graphic novel is perfect for…
When I was young, I worked on fishing boats in Alaska and developed an affection for weird sea creatures. All manner of unusual marine life would come up on the line, like wild-looking sea stars, pointy-nosed skates, and alien-looking ratfish. Later, I graduated from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks with a degree in Communications. One of my early jobs was with the Washington Department of Wildlife public information department, writing about fish, as well as other wildlife-related topics. When I moved to Bozeman, Montana, I had the opportunity to create content for a museum exhibit on early life forms. That hooked me on all things paleo. It is a joy to write about and share the things I love—like oddball creatures from deep time.
This fascinating, nail-biter of a tale has all the elements of a novel: quirky characters, chance encounters, a determined female curator, chase scenes, mystery, and hunt for something that scientists believed existed only in the fossil record. The story begins in 1938 in South Africa on the deck of a trawler, with young Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer picking through a pile of sharks, starfish, and ratfish—to uncover a beautiful, five-foot-long fish with hard iridescent scales and limb-like fins. Weinberg brings the story, and the coelacanth, to life, weaving a narrative as breathtaking as the fish itself. I enjoyed this book immensely!
A gripping story of obsession, adventure and the search for our oldest surviving ancestor - 400 million years old - a four-limbed dinofish!
In 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a young South African museum curator, caught sight of a specimen among a fisherman's trawl that she knew was special. With limb-like protuberances culminating in fins the strange fish was unlike anything she had ever seen. The museum board members dismissed it as a common lungfish, but when Marjorie eventually contacted Professor JLB Smith, he immediately identified her fish as a coelacanth - a species known to have lived 400 million years ago,…
As a children’s author of board books through picture books (Baby Code series, Chicks!,Bizarre Birds, and The Biggest Pumpkin) and as a librarian, I love books that make children feel good and loved. When I was working on my picture book The Giant Hug, I researched what other hug books had been published. There weren’t many back in 2002, but I continued to be on the lookout even after mine was published. I’m happy to report that there are quite a few hug books out there now, spreading love, hugs, and kindness to readers of all ages. We all need them!
Author-illustrator Ellie Peterson’s recently published book How to Hug a Pufferfishis much needed in today’s world. It’s a story not only about giving hugs, but also about asking permission to give a hug. In an engaging and fun way with cartoonish illustrations, Peterson uses the prickly pufferfish to humorously show that not everyone wants to receive a hug all the time. If you’re a pufferfish, you need to be asked. It’s a book about consent for the youngest readers, presented in the sweetest age-appropriate way you can imagine. I will definitely be reading this at my story time, and might even gift this to a few prickly adults!
A picture book about a group of underwater friends who learn to ask for permission before showing their prickly, pufferfish pal some love.
So, you want to hug a pufferfish...
Who could blame you? That friendly, gap-toothed grin is hard to resist! Only, when Pufferfish is hugged or touched unexpectedly by their friends, things can get a little…spiky.
It’s not that Pufferfish doesn’t ever want hugs—it’s just that they need to have a say in when and how they’re hugged. Luckily, they have great friends who are willing to listen and learn the best ways to show Pufferfish some love…
I’ve been fascinated with the ocean starting when I was a kid growing up on the Great Lakes. While I sailed and swam in Lake Erie’s freshwater, I dreamed of and read about oceans. My career as a historian and writer has been dedicated to exploring the human relationship with the ocean, especially the underwater realm so often left out of maritime history and literature. My greatest joy is that other historians have joined my quest. The books I’ve selected include some I used as sources in writing ocean history and others by historians who are themselves plumbing the ocean’s depths.
This fantasy by the prolific and well-known American novelist Theodore Pratt follows the adventures of a bespectacled bookkeeper who becomes a fish, serves the American navy during the Second World War, and swims off to evolve a better species of humanity, free of those qualities that provoked global conflict. Reflecting scientific and popular embrace of the idea that life, including the human species, evolved from the sea, Mr. Limpet combines pointed commentary and humor with the growing cultural fascination of the undersea prompted by submarine warfare. Rare today because of its publication shortly after American entry into the war, the novel inspired the more well-known 1963 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
I am a school and public librarian as well as a writer. I also serve as a member of the Children’s Book Committee of the Bank Street College of Education. We review hundreds of books each year for consideration of a place on our list –The Best Children’s Books of the Year. I've chosen to recommend some lighthearted picture books with Jewish characters or themes because a number of my own books fit into this category. Mitzi’s Mitzvah, Little Red Ruthie, and Dance the Hora, Isadora! are three of my Jewish themed books. Each of these titles has been selected by PJ Library, an organization that sends a book each month to children.
It’s not easy to create non-human characters that are fully believable, but Horowitz does it with the most unlikely creatures–gefilte fish who escape from their jar. Their antics are silly in the best way and the sprinkling of Yiddish terms (explained in a glossary) adds flavor and humor. The cartoon illustrations are spot on!
When five curious young gefilte fish have the chutzpah to sneak out of their jar and set off to explore the world, they are followed by a loud OY VEY!—Mama Gefilte isn’t too happy to see her little ones leaving the nest. But she’s taught them well, and at the end of their adventures, each one proves himself a mensch—making Mama one proud gefilte indeed.
Dave Horowitz’s playful rhyming tale, its illustrations packed with comic asides, will have readers giggling out loud and looking for opportunities to practice their Yiddish—with help from the handy glossary at the end of the…
I’ve found kids to be interested in difficult topics - like stealing, racism, inequality, environmental catastrophe to name a few! But I don’t want to lecture or frighten them about their future. I believe picture books can tell a story about things going awry but coming right again through a good idea, or act of kindness or a magic wand or the intervention of fate. When the story unfolds in the comfort and security of a carer’s lap or a safe classroom and there are accompanying pictures of absorbing detail that communicate the artist’s emotion and humor I think you provide universal foundation blocks for a good life.
I often read this book with kids in libraries and classrooms. They love it and I do too because the pictures are simple, repetitive and often show the opposite of what the words have said. That’s what makes it so funny. The eyes of the characters tell so much of this story and the abundance of black sets a slightly menacing mood, which is a great contrast to the confident naïveté of the little fish. There’s a confession on the first page about stealing and we really hope the little fish will get away with it. It’s a wonderful, ambiguous ending and there’s so much to talk to kids about in this book.
A sneaky fish learns a lesson in crime and punishment in the bestselling, multiple award-winning sequel to I Want My Hat Back.
Winner of the Caldecott Medal and Kate Greenaway Medal 2014
From the creator of the bestselling I Want My Hat Back and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole comes the story of a tiny fish who proudly wears a blue hat. It fits him perfectly. Problem is, trouble could be following close behind... So it's a good thing that the enormous fish he took it from won't wake up. And even if he does, it's not as though…
As a kid, I never stopped asking “But why?” Learning the answers always led me to new questions, and I’ve been on a life-long journey to understand the world, and how everything works. I wanted to give the joy of discovery, and the empowerment of understanding, to a new generation of readers. The amazing story of evolution seemed to be a great starting point. I wrote the book I wanted to read to my own daughter, full of adventures and grown-up science, told in a way kids can understand.
A more conceptual connection to evolution, this creative book introduces the amazing fact of life and introduces young readers to the fact that all life on Earth is related. I love the way the vibrant illustrations track development from cells to creatures and show how humans, mammals, fish, reptiles, and birds are connected. With back matter to support adults to explain evolution in an age-appropriate way, this story can be a great introduction to answering the question “where do people come from?”
"This is a beautiful and important book—a reminder that humans are deeply connected with every other animal on this glorious planet." —Sy Montgomery, Naturalist and New York Times best selling author
If gills appear, will it be a fish? From fish to frogs to humans, Who Will It Be? introduces the theory of evolution, exploring connections between humans and all life on Earth.
Exploring the origin of animals from fish to frogs to humans, Who Will It Be? introduces Darwin’s theory of evolution to children with a simple, captivating story.
Vibrant illustrations and eye-catching primary colors transition the story, driving…
I love fish—to look at and read about—not to eat! Fish are unlike other pets. You can’t hold them, or pet them, and you certainly can’t “play” with them the way you can other pets. But for some reason, just looking at them makes me laugh. And because fish don’t say much besides “glug” (although some kinds sing and grunt) we need to imagine what they are thinking and feeling which makes for funny and surprising stories. And, yes, I have pet goldfish: an orange one, Norman, and a black fantail named Knot.
The classic “David and Goliath” theme of a smaller hero conquering a mighty adversary—but with a fishy twist! A school of small red fish and one black fish, Swimmy, all live together happily until “one bad day” a huge tuna gobbles up all the red fish. Only Swimmy, who is faster than the others, gets away. At first Swimmy is lonely without his friends but then bravely begins exploring the wonders of the sea. When Swimmy finds a new school of red fish, he tries to get them to come out to play. But they are too afraid to go out because a big fish might eat them. Then Swimmy gets an idea. He trains the school of small red fish to swim in formation like one big fish, with him as the eye.
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What is this book about?
The gorgeous, Caldecott Honor-winning tale of a very clever fish by beloved picture book creator Leo Lionni.
Deep in the sea lives a happy school of fish. Their watery world is full of wonders, but there is also danger, and the little fish are afraid to come out of hiding . . . until Swimmy comes along. Swimmy shows his friends how—with ingenuity and team work—they can overcome any danger.
Winner of the 1964 Caldecott Honor, this beloved tale of a brave little fish has been a favorite to generations of readers. To celebrate Swimmy's fiftieth anniversary, we are issuing…
