Science is a priority in our homeschool. My children, at 8, 7, and 5-years-old, have had a number of science obsessions in recent years. One summer it was tinkering, another summer it was chemistry. They have planted gardens, constructed fantastic forts, and helped my husband repair appliances. We have watched caterpillars transform into butterflies, praying mantises hatch from egg cases, and raised tadpoles. We have watched amazing documentaries, enjoyed many field trips, and read wonderful science and math storybooks. Today, I’d like to tell you about four fantastic new-to-us science books that my little scientists adore!

5 Fantastic Books for Young Scientists

I have always loved children’s books and, as a homeschool mom, I’m constantly on the hunt for fantastic books to strew about our home. So much learning happens when children stumble upon a book and fall head-over-heels for the story. These five books have been huge hits in our home. Each book provides a perfect opportunity for stealth learning, especially if you have a kiddo interested in science!

1. Isaac the Alchemist: Secrets of Isaac Newton by Mary Losure

My book-loving 8-year-old devoured this story of Isaac Newton’s youth. Newton was a leader of the scientific revolution, the father of physics, and a brilliant mathematician. When he was a boy, he lived in an apothecary’s home and spent many hours observing and experimenting and recording his observations. He read whatever books he had access to, constructed machines, and got lost in experimentation. If you have a biography loving scientist at home, he or she will not be able to put this one down!

2. Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World by Bill Nye and Gregory Mone

Yes, you read that correctly! Bill Nye the Science Guy has teamed up with author Gregory Mone to create a series for kids. This is the first book in the series and my son read the afternoon it arrived on our doorstep. My daughter read it the following morning. Both kids loved it!

This series combines real-world science and facts with humor, mystery, and suspense. This first book includes information about the science discussed to solve the mystery in the book, in addition to a fun science project about density that children can perform at home or in the classroom.

3. Oh, Ick: 114 Science Experiments Guaranteed to Gross You Out! by Joy Masoff

This book is loaded with yucky fun facts, engaging photographs and illustrations, activities (“ick-tivities”), and experiments (“ick-speriments”). This “icky” book features a wide array of topics including: arachnids, awesome acids, bacteria, blood, boogers, burps, crimes, dirt, earwax and ear hair, eyeballs, farts, fossils, fungi, garbage, guts, hair horrors, halitosis, icky ice cream, insects, lava, mummies, noxious noises, odious odors, offal and other awful eats, poop (of course), quakes and sink holes, scabs and stitches, slime, spit, toilets, urine, vile viruses, vomit, worms, yucky yolks, zaps, and zits.

4. Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers by Andrea Beaty

Yes, it’s true! There is now a companion book to the much-loved Rosie Revere, Engineer! This project book is chock-full of activities for the budding engineer in your life. From brainstorming to art to word searches to STEM challenges to mistakes that worked, this book is fun-filled and promises to keep your child happily engaged in educational and creative pursuits.

5. STEAM Kids is all about inspiring the next generation of inventors, innovators, and leaders to:

Question like a scientist
Design like a technologist
Build like an engineer
Create like an artist
Deduce like a mathematician
Play like a kid

This beautifully-illustrated book is filled with 52 hands-on STEAM projects for children ages 4-10. Activity chapters are broken up into five areas of inspiration: Build, Color, Play, Sense, and Grow and each is identified by its STEAM category (science, technology, engineering, art, and/or mathematics). Each activity explains the STEAM behind it, detailed instructions and illustrations, materials required, difficulty level, time required, and several extension activities to take the learning to the next level.

One thing I really love about STEAM Kids is the fact that it includes an activity planner at the end. This is akin to a meal planner, but for STEAM activities. The planner includes five activities per week (one from each category) and materials required for over 10 weeks. The activity planner also includes fantastic field trip ideas and links to over fifty additional STEAM extension activities.