Sponsored by our 1-year Audible subscription giveaway courtesy of Macmillan Audiobooks.
We’re giving away a 1-year subscription to Audible to one lucky winner, courtesy of Macmillan’s Audiobooks Newsletter.
Hi Kid Lit Friends,
Happy Sunday! I recently had the chance to watch the Jane movie about Jane Goodall with my kids (it’s fantastic), and it got me thinking about women in science. I thought I would round up some great books about it.
Ocean Speaks: How Marie Tharp Revealed the Ocean’s Biggest Secret by Jess Keating, illustrated by Katie Hickey is a wonderful picture book biography. From a young age, Marie Tharp loved watching the world. In the mid-twentieth century, however, women were not welcome in the sciences. But Marie was tenacious and she got a job in a laboratory at Cambridge University, New York. But then she faced another barrier: women were not allowed on the research ships (they were considered bad luck on boats). So instead, Marie stayed back and dove deep into the data her colleagues recorded. She mapped point after point and slowly revealed a deep rift valley in the ocean floor.
Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani, illustrated by Maris Wicks is a graphic nonfiction book about three groundbreaking women scientists. It is an accessible, entertaining, and informative look at the field of primatology and at the lives of three of the most remarkable women scientists of the twentieth century.
Black Women in Science by Kimberly Brown Pellum is a great collection of fifteen women that built a legacy by advancing their STEM fields. The book includes stories by incredible scientists and mathematicians, including Mae Jemison, Annie Easley, Bessie Coleman, Katherine Johnson, Gladys West, Mamie Phipps Clark, and Jane Cooke Wright. These stories celebrate incredible women who had brains and tenacity and did all they could to beat the odds and be the best in their fields.
Leaders Like Us: Rebecca Lee Crumpler (August 11, 2020, Discovery Library) by J.P. Miller, illustrated by Markia Jenai, is about the first African-American woman to work as a professional medical doctor. Later, she also provided care for those formerly enslaved through an arrangement with the government. She became the only woman doctor to write a book in the nineteenth century.
Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World by Laurie Lawlor, illustrated by Laura Beingessner follows the life of Rachel Carson. Her fascination with the natural world led her to study biology, and pursue a career in science at a time when very few women worked in the field. She went on to be a journalist and pioneering researcher, investigating and exposing the harmful effects of pesticide overuse.
What are you reading these days? Let me know! Find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or email me at KarinaBookRiot@gmail.com.
Until next time!
Karina
*If this e-mail was forwarded to you, follow this link to subscribe to “The Kids Are All Right” newsletter and other fabulous Book Riot newsletters for your own customized e-mail delivery. Thank you!*