Please welcome Erica from What Do We Do All Day?, a blog that always inspires me. There’s a big push now for non-fiction in the Common Core Curriculum and I am afraid that if we, as parents, don’t introduce non-fiction books to our kids that enchant them, they could be turned off by the onslaught of “boring” non-fiction they will be forced to read at school.
Non-fiction, however, when matched up to a child’s interest can be a great motivator in getting them to read. Erica offers up great science books for kids! I hope you find some ideas here for your child’s summer reading list.
p.s. Here’s another fabulous one!
Usha and the Big Digger by Amitha Jagannath Knight, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat
When Usha and her sister look up at the stars in the sky, they see different images. Is it a big dipper or a big digger? When their cousin arrives, they look for the constellation but find that there are many more shapes in the sky! This is a wonderful introduction to astronomy that all children will enjoy. On a dark night when the stars are bright, use this book to stargaze and discover pictures in the sky. [bilingual Spanish picture book, ages 2 and up]
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Do your kids love science and learning about facts? Science picture books are a lovely way for kids to explore their favorite subjects and discover something new.
At What Do We Do All Day? I share a book list (almost) every Monday, and even though my older son loves non-fiction books, I have made very few lists featuring fact-based books. That is probably a reflection of my own interests, so I am extra excited to be able to share with Pragmatic Mom’s followers this list of science picture books my boys have really enjoyed!
This book list is a hodgepodge and mishmash of all different science topics, so I hope you will find something that is a good fit for your child’s interests. If you have any favorite science picture books, please leave a comment here on this post. We love to get recommendations!
A Seed Is Sleepy
All the Water in the World
Just Ducks!
Growing Patterns
Actual Size
Older Than the Stars
Too Hot? Too Cold?: Keeping Body Temperature Just Right
Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable
Do any of these books fit with your kids’ favorite science subjects? What would you add to the list?
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Erica (aka “Mom and Kiddo”) is a SAHM to two very rowdy boys who love to read. She blogs at What Do We Do All Day? where she shares a new book list every Monday, including popular lists featuring chapter books for preschoolers, early chapter books, and favorite classics by the decade. She also shares easy indoor activities that her kids have tested out in their tiny apartment and fun learning ideas for kids. You can connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest or Google+.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
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To examine any book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book.
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p.s. Related posts:
Top 10 STEM Expository Nonfiction Picture Books
31+ STEM Books to Inspire Girls
Great STEM Picture Books paired with Fun Activities
STEM Books on Scientific Minds, Methods, & Discovery
5 STEM Picture Books Celebrating Differences
Earth Sciences STEM Picture Books
14 Autumn Picture Books with STEM and Diversity
Top 10 STEM Bird Books for Bird-Watching Kids
Really Fun Videos of STEM Experiments for Kids
DIY Bee House STEM Project for Kids
DIY STEM Paper Circuits: Light Up Cards
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Children’s Book Activities on Pinterest.
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
I hope your readers enjoy this list, Mia and thank you so much for having me on your blog!
Thank you so much for your wonderful list Erica! I will be using it too!
So many wonderful books on this list – love it!
May I suggest a few more of my own favorites?
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A TAIL LIKE THIS? by Steve Jenkins
SWIRL BY SWIRL: SPIRALS IN NATURE by Joyce Sidman
A LEAF CAN BE by Laura Salas
Happy reading!
Hi Cathy,
Such great additions! We love What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? It’s fun to guess. Thanks for your great book recommendations!
Cathy, I love Swirl by Swirl! That would be a great addition to the list!
I think Swirl by Swirl is one of the few non fiction picture books I’ve read recently. Good call Cathy!
Nice list of books and I’m going to look for Redwoods in my bookstore, nice concept.
Hi Giora,
Erica has a wonderful blog too (What Do We Do All Day?). Glad you liked her science book for kids book list!
Awesome round up. I need to add more nonfiction to our home library. My boys always love nonfiction choices, but I’m such a fiction lover, I forget to add it in. Definitely checking out some of these.
Hi Jackie,
I’m the same. I always have fiction but forget about non-fiction. Now I have no excuse!
Great list, Erica! I’ve pinned it for reference. We’ll especially enjoy digging into the poop book…yay!
Hi Jeanette,
Who can resist a poop book? No boy I’ve ever met!
Thanks Jeanette! We’ve actually checked out half a dozen poop books over the years – it was sort of hard to choose just one!
Hi Erica,
Jeanette and I both like potty humor. Is there a poop non fiction section at the library? There must be, right? Non fiction is oragnized by topic, isn’t it? Jeanette, you and I have to find that shelf of funny! Race you to find the call number! Imagine asking the librarian, “We need to find the poo section please.” LOL, I think that is why potty humor is so funny!
Lovely recommendations for the younger set!
Thanks Roshni! Erica makes such great lists!
It’s funny how most children are so interested in everything and anything, until it’s force-fed them at school (or home). My 4 year old devours non-fiction and fiction alike – he can’t get enough of stories and information. I really hope I can keep his enthusiasm going.
Thanks for the great post, Erica.
Hi Elle,
That is so great that your kids are getting a balanced diet of fiction and non-fiction. I wish I could say the same for mine! We are heavily fiction … we need more non-fiction.
Yup, some kids don’t like to study subjects introduced at school. I find my 8 year old is the opposite. When he learns something at school, he ends up wanting to check out even more books about that subject! It’s great to see that.
Hi Erica,
I love how motivated and curious your son is! That will serve him well as an adult! Good job mom!! (I always have to credit the parents for the kids’ achievements!).
Oh dear! Teachers do not go out of their way to make learning about or using non-fiction texts boring. Most of us have kids so we are more aware of what kinds of non-fiction our kids and thus our students might be interested in. My personal class library is the largest in the school (I am a bit of a book nut! okay not a bit…a HUGE book nut) and most of it is non-fiction because that is what my students seem to ask for. Of course it helped that I have two Discovery Channel loving boys at home who also love a good non-fiction book and often continue to explore the topic after the book is finished. A lot of the books made their way into my class library when my boys were finished with them. There are a lot of books that are a mix of fiction and non-fiction out there that capture student attention and that teachers, like myself use as introductions to various units. Perhaps how a child views a particular genre depends on how a parent, teacher or even their friends perceive it or present it. I love books…all types of books and I think that is why my students and my sons do too! I have learned about every plane in the air force, how cruise ships are made, all about old castles and knights, different cultures, artists, how to hot rod an old car and gross anatomy all because my sons and my students were interested in these things. Not every child will enjoy fiction or non-fiction and not every child will like to read–that is inevitable. Please, don’t insinuate that that is the fault of their teachers or even the education system. Many teachers try to make learning interesting, engaging, student driven when possible and inquiry based if possible. And I do not know many teachers who don’t spend time looking for quality non-fiction and fiction books or magazines to inspire and hook their students’ interest in learning various topics. I am thrilled that you and other parents take such a deep interest in your child’s learning and in inspiring them to love books of all kinds and to go beyond the book and explore further. Kudos to you and keep on doing it! I LOVE this blog for this reason and have passed it on to several friends of mine both teachers and non-teachers. I would give you my list of favourite non-fiction books but it is too long for as my students say, “Mrs. M…EVERY book is your favourite!” and well, that is almost true.
Happy reading! Thanks for the list of books, I will definitely be adding a few to my class library this year.
Hi Erin,
I agree with you that the key to making non fiction exciting for kids is to match interest with individual child. One of my kids is learning how to read non fiction for the MCAS test through non fiction magazine that all the kids have to read and analyze. She hates this because she has no interest in the stories and that was my concern. This has really turned her off non fiction as well.
I also think that these wild swings in education policy do more harm than good. Making non fiction more of a priority over fiction seems very short sighted to me but this is being done in the United States currently, in theory, to help our kids succeed in an international knowledge based economy. Honestly, a better approach would be to have foreign language, music and art mandatory in elementary school curriculum rather than an emphasis on reading captions below images in non fiction 2 page stories. This approach is necessary for scoring well on the MCAS test.
I agree with you that kids need to be taught a love of reading and so many wonderful teachers do that by going above and beyond the call of duty. I often see a teacher at my elementary school at the public library with a child from her class as she steers the kid around the children’s section in search of books to get that kid excited to read. I can tell you are one of those teachers!
I would love your list of favorite non fiction books! It’s a area of weakness for me personally.
Great theme and list! I love to find nonfiction, science picture books. There are a few from this list we like too and a few I am adding to our list. Thanks Pragmatic Mom for introducing us to Erica too. Followed her all over!
Hi Ann,
Erica from What Do We Do All Day? has an awesome blog! She blogs on children’s books frequently and makes wonderful lists. I may be mistaken but I think she used to own a bookshop at one point.
This is such a fantastic book list! My son would much rather read factual books than fiction, but I miss the story books! Usually, the books he chooses are very dense in info and light on pictures, which I’m not a huge fan of for bedtime. Haha! I think these would make us both happy.
Hi Joyce,
So glad that Erica’s list is helpful. I love her lists at What Do We Do All Day? and non fiction science books are exactly what we don’t read and need more of!
Erica, your book lists are the best!!
Thanks Mia and Erica both for sharing this with the Kid Lit Blog Hop!
Thanks for hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop! I love it!
What a great list. We love reading nonfiction and we recently borrowed Just Ducks from the library and adored it.I host a weekly nonfiction link up, called Keeping it Real, and I hope you can share your book list with us.
Hi Melissa!
Swinging by right now! Thanks for the heads up on your great linky!
Great list of recommendations Erica! Where were you 5 years ago when my kids were little? lol Thanks for sharing your post in the Kid Lit Blog Hop Mia! 🙂
Hi Renee,
We are using this list ourselves too thanks to Erica!!
Please recommend more Science and Math related picture books!
Thanks. 🙂
Hi JR,
You got it!
Nature is All Around Us is a guest post with lots of great non fiction science books: http://www.pragmaticmom.com/2013/07/non-fiction-picture-books-for-kids/
Favorite Picture Books That Teach Math Concepts: http://www.pragmaticmom.com/2011/07/favorite-picture-books-that-teach-math-concepts/
Books for Kids with Science Concepts: http://www.pragmaticmom.com/2011/10/top-10-sciencey-childrens-books/
Hope those help!
hay…..this is i guess best list ..great collection.
Thanks so much Katie!
Youch!!! to what was written in your blog, “I am afraid that if we, as parents, don’t introduce non-fiction books to our kids that enchant them, they could be turned off by the onslaught of “boring” non-fiction they will be forced to read at school.” This comment seems too sweeping, critical and inaccurate. I thought the counter-response given in an earlier comment covered my thoughts perfectly; thank you to her.
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Hi Teresa,
I’m sorry that offended you. I was referencing these non-fiction short magazines that my kids read in school as part of Common Core Standardized Test Prep. My kids read them and then answer questions modeled after standardized tests and they HATE these magazines. I understand that it’s important for them to get the test format; that they have to read the captions under the photos but they find it boring and a turnoff. And the magazines are non-fiction pieces. But I do think that it’s important when it comes to nonficton to match up your child’s interest (which the magazines do not do). I think when you do that, nonfiction is magical and gets kids reading.
Hi there! Thank you for your reply. I think we can all agree that there are a lot of wonderful books out there. I’ve made a push for about the last 6-7 years to get more non-fiction into my second grade classroom. As you might imagine non-fiction at that reading level can be challenging to find, especially on a teacher’s budget. However, I did get an Audubon Society grant a couple years ago; buy books from our book guy; order many books through Scholastic; and frequent the thrift stores. I do have higher level non-fiction books for different science and social studies units. If children want to read those further they take them home in their “Read to Me” bag. I would be the first to commend parents who read to their children and make reading an important part of family life. I work hard during the year to encourage a routine of reading. It is disheartening to check with children in September and hear, “No. I didn’t read anything this summer.” Or, to hear parents say, “We meant to get to reading.” After all, “readers” don’t wait for a jump start to begin reading in the summer. They just continue their reading routine. So, to the parents out there helping their children engage with books . . . thank you!
Hi Teresa,
Our elementary school tends to assign summer reading which is great. Last year it was five books in different genres plus a book project. I liked how the different genres forced my son out of his usual choices (Riordan, Riordan and Timmy Failure). I had purchased Salt a few years back for his older sisters but they didn’t read it. We read it and it’s a great non fiction title about how Salt played such a huge role in history.
This summer, my son has to read 4 Just Right For Me Books. I’m hoping to get that number up a little higher. He’s reading Bible story book told via Minecraft Graphic Novel which is so clever and really the only way to get him to read Bible stories! We are finishing up Cosmic which my son says doesn’t count because we started it before school got out. He loved The Candymakers by Wendy Mass and this is a similar plot but in space instead of a candy factory. He will read Riordan’s newest Percy Jackson Heroes book as soon as it comes out. He is racing through My Life as a Gamer. I am hoping he will try out Teach Your Kids to Code which is nonfiction about how to program in Python. He’s currently learning Java through Minecraft at summer camp. I bought him Neal Shusterman’s The Schwa Was Here. We read one of his short stories in a Guys Read book and he’s such a great writer. That might be pushing him though… not sure if he will read it.
You remind me to add in more nonfiction though so thank you! I’m going to scoot him by that section at the bookstore to see what catches his eye. He’s not really into anything but gaming right now. The National Geographic Alamanac for Kids 2015 was a hit last summer. I might pull that out again or find something similar from that series. He does love the 100 Most XX series.
Some biographies would be nice too. I have a stash of picture book biographies which we can read together. They “won’t count” because he will deem them too easy but I think he will enjoy them. I’d love to add in some folk tales too. I have a Vietnamese book and a few other Asian folk tale books on my desk. I might ask him to “review” them for me.
It takes some sneakiness to my son reading, especially out of his usual authors. I’m glad you are getting your students excited about reading in your classroom! It’s teachers like you who make such a huge difference!! Thank you!
Thank you for all your kind words. What grade is your son in? I only ask to see what a boy of his age is choosing to read. You have listed books I need to check out! I want to ask you about different genres. To say that my classroom has a lot of books would be an understatement; my classroom has jokingly been called -The Library Annex-. The children take home books to read every night. Every fifth book has to be nonfiction, a biography or folk fairy tale. (Theoretically all five of their books could come from these categories.) What other genre do you think might warrant special marking/recognition/promotion? (For example: we talk about fantasy fiction and realistic fiction, but I do not have them keep track of which of those they read.) I have lots of non-fiction-fairy-folk tales, but have only started really collecting biographies this last year; it is hard to find biographies at a primary level. I am interested in your suggestions. Then, I thought I would share with you some of the other ways I promote reading. There is a -Reading Club-every month: September: Clifford; October: Henry and Mudge, etc. I have a spinner of many of the beginning chapter books. Students are given a -Read to Me- zip-lock bag to keep in their -Take Home Folder-; I think parents tend to ignore books that are loose in a backpack. This way the parent and child know it is a book to be shared. These books are often the books I read aloud (promoted) and often above a child’s reading level (so sharing is a great way to reinforce the story). I have a list of classic chapter books (Henry and Ribsy; My Side of the Mountain) that I send home letting the parents know they may borrow the books from me. Finally, I have just put up a -Little Free Library- at my house! I live about 3 minutes from my school, and so everyone drives by it. I am so excited; I am still waiting for the sign, but did make it in two local papers. Thanks for sharing, and letting me share in return.
Hi Teresa,
Wow, your classroom library sounds amazing! My son is 10 years old and will be in 5th grade this September. He’s currently reading Percy Jackson Hereos which should conclude his summer reading assignment for his 5th grade teachers: 4 books with a small paragraph summary. Whew! I think we will barely make it. Officially, the other books are: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (first one), A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass and My Life as a Gamer by Janet Tashjian.
Could not send you the newspaper articles on my Little Free Library; kept getting the message “too many URLS”. Anyway, if interested, in google use the words: TeeTee’s cottage, Little Free Library”. You’ll get the facebook page which contains both articles!
Thanks!!!
Hi Teresa,
I’ll share your awesome newspaper articles here on your Little Free Library. Thanks so much for sharing!
Free Little Library opens its tiny door to reading, Herald Net
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20150619/NEWS01/150619172
A little free library sprouts on Rucker Avenue in Everett, Snoho
http://www.snoho.com/stories_2015/062415_everett_little_free_library.html