This list—selected by volunteer educators and assembled in cooperation with the Children’s Book Council—provides recommendations about the best trade books with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content available for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“The 2020 list of Best K-12 STEM books cover a wonderfully diverse spectrum of STEM themes that engage, entertain, and inspire students,” said NSTA Executive Director Dr. David Evans. “We are delighted to bring increased attention to these outstanding books that help bolster reading comprehension skills while learning STEM content.”

Members of the book review panel, made up of STEM educators and literacy professionals appointed by NSTA, selected 22 books for the list from approximately 322 submissions. The list of winning titles includes topics that range from crayons to crash-test dummies.

“ALL IN A DROP: HOW ANTONY VAN LEEUWENHOEK DISCOVERED AN INVISIBLE WORLD”

by Lori Alexander

Illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers

Meet Antony van Leeuwenhoek, the first person to see bacteria, protozoa, and cells “all in a drop” of water with his revolutionary microscopes in the late seventeenth century.

 

“BORN JUST RIGHT”

by Jordan Reeves and Jen Lee Reeves

Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Aladdin

The autobiography of a brave, innovative, and inspiring young lady who meets challenges with passion while spreading awareness about limb differences.

 

“BUZZING WITH QUESTIONS: THE INQUISITIVE MIND OF CHARLES HENRY TURNER”

by Janice N. Harrington

Illustrated by Theodore Taylor III

Publisher: Boyds Mills & Kane / Calkins Creek

Discover the power of questioning and the positive impact Charles Henry Turner had on how we observe our natural world.

“A COMPUTER CALLED KATHERINE: HOW KATHERINE JOHNSON HELPED PUT AMERICA ON THE MOON”

by Suzanne Slade

Illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Katherine Johnson loved counting and math from her earliest years. As an adult, she broke through societal barriers against black women to become an integral part of NASA’s successful race to the moon.

 

“THE CRAYON MAN: THE TRUE STORY OF THE INVENTION OF CRAYOLA CRAYONS”

by Natascha Biebow

Illustrated by Steven Salerno

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers

Discover the true story of the creation of Crayola crayons by an inventor who persevered in order to bring vibrant colors to children’s fingertips.

 

“A DREAM OF FLIGHT: ALBERTO SANTOS-DUMONT’S RACE AROUND THE EIFFEL TOWER”

by Rob Polivka and Jef Polivka

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Take flight atop Airship No. 6 with Alberto Santos-Dumont around the Eiffel Tower. Through a series of attempts, failures and lessons, young Alberto conquered the skies and opened the door for aviation.

“THE ELECTRIC WAR: EDISON, TESLA, WESTINGHOUSE AND THE RACE TO LIGHT THE WORLD”

by Mike Winchell

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and a world in need of electricity. Go into the mind of three geniuses and the progressive thinking that changed the way we view the world.

“ELON MUSK: A MISSION TO SAVE THE WORLD”

by Anna Crowley Redding

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Feiwel & Friends

From electric cars to space exploration, this book describes how the inventor Elon Musk is tackling some of humankind’s most challenging problems.

“THE FIRST DINOSAUR: HOW SCIENCE SOLVED THE GREATEST MYSTERY ON EARTH”

by Ian Lendler

Illustrated by C. M. Butzer

Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books

Read about the time before people discovered dinosaurs. Medical doctors, curiosity collectors, and quarrymen pieced together the puzzle of unfamiliar animal bones to discover the existence of dinosaurs.

“FROM AN IDEA TO LEGO: THE BUILDING BRICKS BEHIND THE WORLD’S LARGEST TOY COMPANY”

by Lowey Bundy Sichol

Illustrated by C. S. Jennings

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers

A unique sneak peek into the creative business path of LEGO’s foundations, where the theory of play meets engineering and design problemsolving.

“FULL OF BEANS: HENRY FORD GROWS A CAR”

by Peggy Thomas

Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

Publisher: Boyds Mills & Kane / Calkins Creek

Encouraged by his mother to “do something useful,” Henry Ford discovers many ways to innovate using the under-appreciated, but highly adaptable, soybean.

“GUITAR GENIUS: HOW LES PAUL ENGINEERED THE SOLID BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR AND ROCKED THE WORLD”

by Kim Tomsic

Illustrated by Brett Helquist

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Music will never be the same because of Les Paul’s out of the box thinking. Through transformative and inspired modifications, young Paul thinks up great inventions that revolutionized music forever.

“THE HOUSE THAT CLEANED ITSELF: THE TRUE STORY OF FRANCES GABE’S (MOSTLY) MARVELOUS INVENTION”

by Laura Dershewitz and Susan Romberg

Illustrated by Meghann Rader

Publisher: The Innovation Press

A delightful story about the clever inventions of Frances Gabe as she worked to create a house that could clean itself.

“HOW TO BECOME AN ACCIDENTAL GENIUS”

by Elizabeth MacLeod and Frieda Wishinsky

Illustrated by Jenn Playford

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

This book highlights the thinking and problem solving strategies of ordinary people that have led to well-known inventions such as popsicles, microwaves, and Teflon.

“INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED: HOW A TEAM OF WOMEN CODED THE FUTURE”

by Tami Lewis Brown and Debbie Loren Dunn

Illustrated by Chelsea Beck

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

This is the true story of three WWII era women who, without any guidance or instructions, managed to command a computer and, in the process, change the modern world.

“KARL’S NEW BEAK: 3-D PRINTING BUILDS A BIRD A BETTER LIFE”

by Lela Nargi

Illustrated by Harriet Popham

Publisher: Capstone Editions

Tells the true story of Karl, a bird with a broken beak, and the team of people who used problem solving and 3-D printing to help him live a better life.

“PRAIRIE BOY: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT TURNS THE HEARTLAND INTO A HOME”

by Barb Rosenstock

Illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

Publisher: Boyds Mills & Kane / Calkins Creek

Find out how Frank Lloyd Wright’s childhood on the Wisconsin prairie impacted his architectural designs which celebrate the shapes of the natural world.

“SAMUEL MORSE, THAT’S WHO! THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH AND MORSE CODE”

by Tracy Nelson Maurer

Illustrated by El Primo Ramón

Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Through failures and revisions, Samuel Morse’s persistence resulted in changing communications forever – an inspiring story of a great inventor.

“SAVE THE CRASH-TEST DUMMIES”

by Jennifer Swanson

Illustrated by TeMika Grooms

Publisher: Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.

From bumpers to brakes, and seat belts to airbags, this engaging book explores the science and history of automobile safety design through the eyes of crash-test dummies.

“SAVING THE TASMANIAN DEVIL: HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE WORLD’S LARGEST MARSUPIAL CARNIVORE SURVIVE”

by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers

Follow the author as she travels to see how scientists are working with a variety of technology to save Tasmania’s icon, the Tasmanian Devil, from being wiped out by disease.

“SECRET ENGINEER: HOW EMILY ROEBLING BUILT THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE”

Written and illustrated by Rachel Dougherty

Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Roaring Brook Press

An incredibly inspiring true story of the young woman who supervised the building of the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband, the chief engineer, became ill during the bridge’s construction.

“TITAN AND THE WILD BOARS: THE TRUE CAVE RESCUE OF THE THAI SOCCER TEAM”

by Susan Hood and Pathana Sornhiran

Illustrated by Dow Phumiruk

Publisher: HarperCollins

Harrowing details about saving a boys soccer team and their coach. They had become trapped after an afternoon of cave exploration during the monsoon season.

Sources for story, images and table of contents image: The Associated Press, Newswire and the National Science Teaching Association