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Sorry to miss this when it first came out.

I have a bunch of suggestions. It won't be complete because I am still on my first cup of coffee, but here goes.

First, you should try The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson. It is the tale of a young slave during the Revolutionary Era who is used, among other things, for scientific research by a parody of early scientific societies like the American Philosophical Society called, I love this, the Novanglian College of Lucidity. It is definitely for the upper edge of your age groups as it is an honest tale of slavery in colonial America, but it contains a lot of consideration of the paradox of men who fancied themselves living in an enlightening and scientific era could at that same time enslave fellow humans. The first volume was published in 2006 and won the National Book Award for Children's Literature among other honors. The second volume is of the American Revolution years and contains less consideration of STEM issues.

The next stop is in the early national period with two different considerations of Charles Wilson Peale, someone who everyone on this list should consider an intellectual and professional ancestor. First the positive side in The Ingenious Mr. Peale: Painter, Patriot, and Man of Science by Janet Wilson. Second, a view of Peale through his slave Moses in Poison Place by Mary E. Lyons. Neither is what I would call top quality children's historical fiction, but they are solid and give two views of someone who could arguably be called the Father of American Science Museums. Both are for approximately grades 5-8.

In a more quasi-historical work I would highly recommend Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The odd premise is that a 13 year old girl thinks she lives in 1840, but it turns out she and her family and friends are actually captives in a living history museum for the edutainment of unseen tourists. The "frontier" families begin a black market of simple medical remedies until diphtheria threaten them and the young heroine escapes the museum into the modern world to find the treatment. It is kind of a time travel story that is actually possible and it can encourage discussion of modern conveniences, especially medicine, and whether the "good old days" were actually good. Those of us who have supervised docents, explainers, and other floor staff over the years might also get a guilty pleasure over the passages where the interpreters get punished for straying out of character. You'd never give anyone a sound thrashing like in the book, of course, but boy, sometimes...

The best picture book I know about Darwin and evolution might be The Tree of Life by Peter Sis, who also did a book on Galileo which I have not read. The art in The Tree of Life is mesmerizing.

I would also suggest Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin for one of the best books on teaching children to just stop and look at nature. You can also show them some awesome images of the original photos Bentley took which are sublime. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1999.

For a couple of contemporary best sellers, I would suggest the Artemis Fowl series, His Dark Materials, and the recently concluded Hunger Games trilogy. Though you likely have these books already in your library, putting them with STEM related books will highlight those themes in these otherwise well known tales and I understand there will soon be Artemis Fowl and Hunger Games movies, so there is a chance to tie in with first-run movies.

Also, in terms of Artemis Fowl, there well may be hundreds of books out there with young boys, centaurs, wizards, and pixies, but none in which science and technology play such central roles and the lead characters, including the evil genius pixie Opal Koboi, have arguments over who has the best inventions, most patents, and latest tech gadgets. They are a must read for anyone who works in the science and technology center field. (IMHO, of course.)

And of course these old standbys. You likely already have them, but maybe this is an opportunity for new copies and frame them as STEM books:

Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos by Robert Lawson 
Johnny Tremain by by Esther Forbes
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car. The original version by Ian Fleming the author of the James Bond books which make perfect sense if you think about. You can also watch the movie, co-written by Roald Dahl and produced by Albert Broccoli, the latter also produced many of the Bond Films.

Speaking of Roald Dahl, you could do worse to encourage STEM discussions with children than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

Dr. Doolittle by civil engineer Hugh Lofting

And of course, a host of Dr. Suess tales that are classic but are serious tales about the effects and ethics of science and technology. Move them to this section of the library. I would include The Lorax, Batholomew and the Ooblek, and Sneetches. Though the latter is about racial and other prejudice, it can also help encourage discussion of beauty and the technological enhancement of the body.

I need a second cup now,  have a great day.


Matthew White
PhD Candidate, History of Science
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Museum Studies
University of Florida
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