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STEM books offer endless opportunities for engaged learning. They invite students to see the world differently and to think in new ways about what they observe.
We have chosen titles that provoke readers to examine the "thinking stance" of characters-not simply to look at actions and results.
Best STEM Books winners explore problems and possible solutions in the scientific world and, where applicable, in the lives of the protagonists. Instead of focusing on specific content, the Best STEM Books emphasize real-world issues that cross disciplinary boundaries.
Teachers can use these books to foster and model "minds-on" work. Parents, grandparents, and other caregivers can involve even the very youngest children in the process of STEM thinking.
How do we prepare 21st-century kids for challenges and jobs that we at present cannot even describe? The Best STEM Books help by celebrating convergent and divergent thinking, analysis and creativity, persistence, and the sheer joy of figuring things out.
Ada Lace Sees Red. Emily Calandrelli with Tamson Weston. Illustrated by Renée Kurilla. Simon & Schuster/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 144pp. Trade ISBN 978-1-481- 48602-6, $16.99. (1-5)
Young Ada Lace struggles with art until she discovers her color blindness. She devises an innovative way to solve two problems at the same time. (IO)
The Book of Chocolate: The Amazing Story of the World's Favorite Candy. HP Newquist. Penguin Young Readers/Viking Books for Young Readers. 160pp. Trade ISBN 978-0- 670-01574-0, $17.99. (6-12)
From bitter liquid origins in isolated places to the ubiquitous presence of chocolate throughout the world today, The Book of Chocolate reveals the rich history of the chocolate industry, including: the creation of chocolate products, the processes that have been developed to produce and manufacture them, and the innovators that have shaped our chocolate world. (PSLP)
Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant. Songju Ma Daemicke. Illustrated by Christina Wald. Arbordale Publishing. 32pp. Trade ISBN 978-1-628- 55903-3, $17.95. (K-3)
How to weigh an elephant without the use of a scale? That is the question. See- ing wise elders fail to find a solution, sixyear- old Cao Chong creatively considers several designs and devises a process that employs concepts of buoyancy and displacement. (KTR)
Caroline's Comets: A True Story. Emily Arnold McCully. Holiday House. 40pp. Trade ISBN 978-0-8234-3664-4, $16.95. (9-12)