Scientists, Explorers, and Artists - STEAM Biographies in Picture Books

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In a Facebook group recently, a friend recently asked for books to introduce kids to different careers and some of the trailblazers. We read a lot of STEM picture books, but most of them are focused on animals or funny stories rather than biographies, so I could only think of a couple favorite biographies off hand.

Then I pulled up my library history and realized that we’ve actually read a lot more picture book biographies than I had realized.

This list features STEAM pioneers in general; it's not a strict "science and engineering" careers list. There are artists, poets, and even one librarian on the list--but all of these books tell a story of real-life creativity and "persistence."

This is only a small sample of the hundreds of picture books biographies available, but if you want to read about STEAM careers, or you like reading history and biographies, here are some amazing picture books to check out!

Math, Science, Engineering & Inventors:

• The Girl with a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague, by Julia Finley Mosca, illustrated by Daniel Rieley - a pioneering mathematician working on ship design for the US Navy. 

• Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor, by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Raúl Colón - a cartographer who figured out how to map the ocean floor.

• Ticktock Banneker's Clock, by Shana Keller, illustrated by David C. Gardner - a self-taught inventor who built clocks.

• The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, by Natascha Biebow, illustrated by Steven Salerno - a peddler who set out to create a better kind of crayons.

• Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-Setting Dive of the Bathysphere, by Barb Rosenstock ; illustrated by Katherine Roy - early ocean explorers working to create a diving machine that would allow them to dive deeper.

• The Flying Girl: How Aida de Acosta Learned to Soar, by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sara Palacios - an early female pilot who learned to fly a motorized digirible.

• Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs, illustrated by Mary Azarian - the photographer who showed the world that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.

• What Miss Mitchell Saw, by Hayley Barrett, illustrated by Diana Sudyka - an early astronomer who discovered a new comet.

• A Computer Called Katherine, by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison - the story of Katherine Johnson, an early NASA "computer" or mathematician.

• Mae Among the Stars, by Roda Ahmed, illustrated by Stasia Burrington - a book about Mae Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut.

• The Girl Who Named Pluto: The Story of Venetia Burney, by Alice B. McGinty, illustrated by Elizabeth Haidle - the story of a young girl who suggested the name for Pluto after its discovery in 1930.

• The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto, by Elizabeth Rusch, illustrated by Guy Francis - a longer, more detailed biography about a scientist who helped change how planets are defined.

• My Journey to the Stars, by astronaut Scott Kelly with Emily Easton, illustrations by André Ceolin - an autobiographical story of an astronaut's life.

• Newton's Rainbow: The Revolutionary Discoveries of a Young Scientist, by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes - a longer biography of a famous physicist.

• Rocks in His Head, by Carol Otis Hurst, illustrated by James Stevenson – the story of an amateur geologist who fell in love with rocks as a boy and spent his life learning about them.

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon - the story of a self-taught inventor who figured out how to create electricity in a remote African village. 

Biology & Ecology:  

• The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath, by Julia Finley Mosca, illustrated by Daniel Rieley - a pioneering optometrist who invented laser cataract surgery. 

• The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, by Mélina Mangal, illustrated by Luisa Uribe - an early African-American scientist who pioneered in biology and cell research.

• Galápagos Girl, by Marsha Diane Arnold, illustrated by Angela Dominguez – a bilingual biography of biologist Valentina Cruz (written in English and Spanish).

• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist, by Jess Keating, illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns - a story about how one scientist change our perception of sharks.

• Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Julia Paschkis - a pioneering entomologist who helped discover the lifecycle of insects.

• The Bug Girl: Maria Merian’s Scientific Vision, by Sarah Glenn Marsh, illustrated by Filippo Vanzo - a second biography about Maria Merian's work studying insects.

• Evelyn the Adventurous Entomologist: The True Story of a World-Traveling Bug Hunter, by Christine Evans, illustrated by Yasmin Imamura - an early female entomologist who traveled the work to study insects in the 1920s.

• Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre & His World of Insects, by Matthew Clark Smith, illustrated by Giuliano Ferri - a pioneering naturalist and entomologist from the 1800s.

• The Bug Girl: A True Story, by the Bug Girl Herself, Sophia Spencer, with Margaret McNamara, illustrated by Kerascoët - a current-day story about young girl who loved bugs and learned how to share her passion with others.

• Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story From Africa, by Jeanette Winter - an African conservationist who sparked a movement to replant Kenya's forests.

• One Plastic Bag: Isatou and the Recycling Women of the Gambia, by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon - the story of an entrepreneur who turned trash into something useful.

• Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City, by H. Joseph Hopkins, illustrated by Jill McElmurry - the story of botanist Kate Sessions who helped create a 30-acre park in San Diego.

• Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist, by Linda Skeers, illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns - a story about an early paleontologist and the study of dinosaurs and other fossils.

• Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles, by Patricia Valdez, illustrated by Felicita Sala - the story of a scientist and her Komodo dragons at the London Zoo.

• When Sue Found Sue: Sue Hendrickson Discovers Her T. Rex, by Toni Buzzeo, illustrated by Diana Sudyka - the paleontologist who found the T-Rex skeleton that is now displayed in the Chicago Field Museum.

Artists & Creators:

• Balderdash!: John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children's Books, by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter - an early children's author.

• It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way, by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Julie Morstad - an illustrator and children's author.

• Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson, by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Cannaday Chapman - a Pulitzer-winning poet and playwright.

• A Life Made By hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa, by Andrea D'Aquino - the story of a Japanese-American artist and sculptor.

• Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos, by Monica Brown, illustrated by John Parra - a famous painter and her pets.

• Noah Webster's Fighting Words, by Tracy Nelson Maurer, illustrated by Mircea Catusanu - an early American writer and his efforts to "fix" English.

• Sylvia's Bookshop: The Story of Paris's Beloved Bookstore and its Founder, by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Katy Wu - the story of a bookstore and the writers who visited it.

• The Efficient, Inventive (Often Annoying) Melvil Dewey, by Alexis O'Neill, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham - the creation of a system for organizing books in a library.

• The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art, by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary GrandPre - an impressionist painter who heard colors.

• Henri's Scissors, by Jeanette Winter - the story of famous artist, Henri Matisse.

• Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton, by Don Tate - the story of an African-American poet who tried to earn his freedom by selling poems.

• It Jes' Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw, by Don Tate ; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie - a self-taught artist who began life as a slave and turned to art at age 85.

It turns out there are a lot of different ways to explore the world! 

If you want to check out even more ideas for unusual or creative careers, these two books are a great place to start:

• What Do Grown-ups Do All Day?, by Virginie Morgand - a fun look at a wide variety of different jobs in education, science, music, and many more fields.

• Incredible Jobs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of, by Natalie Labarre - a fantastic collection of fun, unusually, and truly bizarre career options.

What other scientists or artists have you read about recently? And what sorts of problems do you want to solve in today's world?