The Best science books for kids

In Hello World: Weather, author/illustrator Jill McDonald explores the seasons through a child’s eyes. She shows the different ways weather can affect a child’s life from how it feels outside to what type of clothing is appropriate. While she doesn’t go much into the how’s and why’s of weather, she does explore the seasons. For a toddler, who may only remember one winter or summer, this is ground-breaking knowledge. McDonald’s bright, cheery pictures encourage your child to point to proper choices for each season, launching her into the book.

In this easy reader book, Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano explores how the sun and moon interact with the earth. She shows how the pair cause a bright, full moon, or darkness in the middle of the day during an eclipse. The text is easy enough for early readers to sound out, while additional information gives parents and children additional info and even experiments to try and observations to make. It was recommended by Brightly as the best book for children’s astronomy in 2017.

In this fun and fanciful book, the Cat in the Hat takes children on a tour of the solar system. You will see your favorite characters from the classic book. Thing One, Thing Two, Sally and her brother and even the fish go with the cat as he explores the solar system and adjacent constellations. The book even gives children easy memory devices to remember the names and order of the planet. The newer, revised version removes Pluto.

Meteor the Mouse wants to go into space more than anything else in Mark Kelly’s book. He trains alongside real-life astronauts hoping to be picked to go into space. When the day comes, Meteor is both thrilled and honored to be one of the few and the proud. At first, he feels too small to do anything on the giant space shuttle. But when disaster strikes, he finds out that it is his size that can save the day. The story is based on the real-life mice in Endeavor’s shuttle mission.

Science isn’t all boring beakers and stellar stars. Sometimes people invent something is just plain fun. That’s the case in Meghan McCarthy’s book about the invention of Bubble Gum. It follows the adventures of Walter Diemer’s experiments to create Double Bubble by Fleer. Walter didn’t just invent bubble gum, but he also perfected the process of blowing giant bubbles. The book is filled with bright illustrations and includes a short biography of Diemer as well as his awesome invention.

Tim Lichtenheld explores the life of a small cumulus cloud. Cloudette is smaller than all the other clouds in the sky. She rarely joins them as they water crops or make raging rivers flow or other “Important cloud things.” But one night she started to wonder what she could do that was important. But she is just not right for any job in town. When a big storm blows her far away from home, she sees a pond that needs some of her water. She puffs herself up until she saves the day with her rain. In the process of telling the story, Lichtenheld explores different cloud types, cold fronts and storms.

Gail Gibbons explores the plant life cycle in her book From Seed to Plant. The calming illustrations show how flowers provide seeds for the next generation. Starting with pollination, Gibbons shows seed development and explores different types of seeds and how they move from one area to another. After people, animals or even the wind plant the seed, the tiny plant inside sprouts when conditions are right. This book shows in simple language how plants germinate all over the world. Diagrams show children parts of flowers and seeds, giving them a clearer understanding of the wonderful world of plants.

A great companion to From Seed to Plant, this book by Joann Early Macken explores how seeds move from one place to another in a variety of ways. Using simpler language that Gibbon’s longer text. However, Flip, Float Fly shows a wide range of seeds from dandelions to locust seed pods to coconuts. She shows not just how they move, but how they germinate when they reach the right place to grow. Simple illustrations show how time passes and shows the child seasons as well as beautiful plants.

Thomas Locker explores the water cycle in his picture book Water Dance. His poetry explains different forms that water takes at different times throughout the world. Starting with rain, he illustrates each form water takes in nature with a lovely oil painting. Water becomes, streams, rivers, mist, clouds, thunderheads and even the ocean. Each time the water becomes something strong and violent, Locker shows how water also becomes something soft, gentle and ephemeral.

In this book by Ruth Spiro, children can explore the world of aerospace engineering at their own level. It starts with a child looking at a bird. The author explains how a bird’s wing works to help the bird fly. She then goes on to explain the difference between a bird and an airplane. Finally, she explains how a rocket can go places that an airplane can’t go. Th simple line drawings illustrate concepts that even a child can follow. The bird, not only illustrates flight, but also goes on an imaginary space flight, still tweeting on its way. This book is a great way to explore the why’s and how’s of flight.