It’s fantastic that in the recent years the number of children’s books that feature girls involved in STEM activities has exploded. In 2020 many new amazing standalone books and series were launched, and some older beloved series got new instalments. 2021 has started strong and will bring the little readers even more smart and adventurous heroines they will fall in love with.
Here is my ultimate list of STEM girls’ books that were or will be published in 2020-2021, starting from picture books suitable for age 3 all the way up to middle-grade books for the tweens.
Picture Books
Grace and Box by Kim Howard
- Illustrator: Megan Lotter
- Age range: 3-6 years
- Number of pages: 32
Grace and her friend Box travel to space, go camping, and explore the depths of the sea together. When Box gets rips and crumpls, Grace is determined to fix her friend so that they can continue their play together!
Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket by Sue Fliess
- Illustrator: Annabel Tempest
- Age range: 3-7 years
- Number of pages: 40
Sadie Sprocket dreams to go to Mars! Together with her crew of stuffed animals, she builds a rocket and makes it to the red planet. There she encounters some trouble and has to figure out how to get back home safely.
Invent-a-Pet by Vicky Fang
- Illustrator: Tidawan Thaipinnarong
- Age range: 3-7 years
- Number of pages: 32
Katie wants an extraordinary pet. When one day she gets a mysterious machine as a gift from her mother, she can finally design her perfect pet. But it’s not as easy as it seems!
Boxitects by Kim Smith
- Illustrator: Kim Smith
- Age range: 4-7 years
- Number of pages: 40
Meg and Simone make amazing structures out of boxes. They are paired for the annual Maker Match, but can’t seem to stop arguing. When their extraordinary project flops, they must find a way to work as a team.
Marsha Is Magnetic by Beth Ferry
- Illustrator: Lorena Alvarez
- Age range: 4-7 years
- Number of pages: 32
Marsha has no friends to invite to her birthday party. Being a scientist, Marsha uses the scientific method and her creativity to attract as many friends as she can—what could possibly go wrong?
The Princess and the Petri Dish by Sue Fliess
- Illustrator: Petros Bouloubasis
- Age range: 4-7 years
- Number of pages: 32
Pippa prefers petri dishes to perfecting her curtseying. And when she realizes that she doesn’t like peas, she gets a bright idea that consumes her and almost the whole kingdom.
Goldilocks and the Three Engineers by Sue Fliess
- Coming on 1 April 2021
- Illustrator: Petros Bouloubasis
- Age range: 4-7 years
- Number of pages: 32
Goldilocks has an inventor’s block. While she takes a walk, three bears find her almost-right inventions. Can they help make the inventions just right?
Izzy Gizmo and the Invention Convention by Pip Jones
- Illustrator: Sara Ogilvie
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 32
Izzy Gizmo decides to build a recycling machine that mends broken tools for Technoff Isle’s annual convention. But with fearsome foe Abi von Lavish getting the best of her at every turn, can Izzy win this competition?
Fairy Science: Solid, Liquid, Gassy! by Ashley Spires
- Illustrator: Ashley Spires
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 40
Book 2 of the Fairy Science series. When a pond dries up, Esther doesn’t freeze under the pressure. She and her friends go full steam ahead for to make a scientific discovery!
Grama’s Hug by Amy Nielander
- Illustrator: Amy Nielander
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 40
May loves science, and her inventions always win at the annual science fair, but not without help and support from her Grandma. When May becomes the first kid astronaut to journey into space, her Grama worries that she will leave without a hug.
Ava in Code Land by Jess Hitchman & Gavin Cullen
- Illustrator: Leire Martin
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 32
Ava loves living in a video game. If something isn’t perfect, Ava reprograms the world to be just the way she likes it. But when a villain breaks all of Ava’s code, she has to use all her coding skills to save the day!
Libby Loves Science by Kimberly Derting & Shelli R. Johannes
- Illustrator: Joelle Murray
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 40
Libby and her friends run a science booth at their school fair. But no one is visiting their booth! Does everyone think science is boring?
Vivi Loves Science by Kimberly Derting & Shelli R. Johannes
- Coming on 13 July 2021
- Illustrator: Joelle Murray
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 40
Vivi and her friends go to the beach to study tide pools. She makes aquascopes, participates in a marine-inspired scavenger hunt, and learns about different species that call the ocean home.
Maxine and the Greatest Garden Ever by Ruth Spiro
- Coming on 16 February 2021
- Illustrator: Holly Hatam
- Age range: 4-8 years
- Number of pages: 40
Sequel of “Made by Maxine” (2018). Maxine and Leo have made The Greatest Garden Ever! But when all sorts of animals start munching on their carrots and knocking over pots, the two friends have to save their garden, and their friendship too.
Chapter Books
Layla and the Bots (series) by Vicky Fang
- Illustrator: Christine Nishiyama
- Age range: 5-7 years
- Number of pages: 80
- Illustrations: full color
- Books in the series:
- Happy Paws
- Built for Speed
- Cupcake Fix (coming on 1 June 2021)
Layla and the Bots are in a rock band, and they also build cool inventions: from an amusement park for dogs to a cupcake machine!
Astronaut Girl (series) by Cathy Hapka & Ellen Vandenberg
- Illustrator: Gillian Reid
- Age range: 6-8 years
- Number of pages: 96
- Illustrations: 2-color
- Books in the series:
- Journey to the Moon
- Star Power
- Silver and Gold
- Mission to Mars (coming on 11 May 2021)
Val, aka Astronaut Girl, is only eight years old, but whenever she’s in trouble, science helps her save the day!
Bips and Roses by Asia Citro
- Illustrator: Marion Lindsey
- Age range: 6-10 years
- Number of pages: 96
- Illustrations: black & white
Book 8 of the Zoey and Sassafras series (published since 2017). In this instalment, Zoey has to solve the problem with the magical forest roses, by using her science know-how, before the hippogriff eggs hatch.
Recipe for Disaster by Jim Benton
- Illustrator: Jim Benton
- Age range: 7-10 years
- Number of pages: 128
- Illustrations: black & white
Book 9 of the “Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist” series (published since 2003). Franny K. Stein uses her genius mind and kitchen lab to create The Most Delicious Muffin On Earth! But, as usual with Franny, it leads to unexpected (and bad) things.
Diary of an Ice Princess (series) by Christina Soontornvat
- Illustrator: Barbara Szepesi Szucs
- Age range: 7-10 years
- Number of pages: 128
- Illustrations: black & white
- Books in the series:
- Snow Place Like Home (2019)
- Frost Friends Forever (2019)
- On Thin Ice (2019)
- The Big Freeze (2020)
- Slush Puppy Love (2020)
- Icing on the Snowflake (2020)
Princess Lina lives in a massive palace in the clouds. She loves making lemons into lemon ice, riding wind gusts around the sky, and turning her bedroom into a real life snow globe.
Frankie Sparks and the Lucky Charm by Megan Frazer Blakemore
- Illustrator: Barbara Nadja Sarell
- Age range: 7-10 years
- Number of pages: 144
- Illustrations: black & white
Book 4 in the “Frankie Sparks, Third-Grade Inventor” series (published since 2019). Franky is excited to build her very own leprechaun trap to get the gift of good luck. But every trap she designs fails! Will Frankie and Maya find their lucky charm, or figure out how to create some luck all on their own?
Penny for Your Thoughts by Erica-Jane Waters
- Illustrator: Erica-Jane Waters
- Age range: 7-9 years
- Number of pages: 128
- Illustrations: black & white
Book 3 on the “Miss Bunsen’s School for Brilliant Girls” series (published since 2019). Pearl, Millie, and Halinka participate in a maze adventure for a big prize. But despite cracking all the right codes, they find themselves trapped in the strange maze. Will the girls be able to keep their wits and solve their way out of this puzzle?
Middle-Grade Books
Kate the Chemist (series) by Kate Biberdorf
- Age range: 9-12 years
- Number of pages: 144
- Illustrations: sporadic black & white
- Books in the series:
- Dragons vs. Unicorns
- The Great Escape
- The STEM Night Disaster
- The Birthday Blastoff (coming on 11 May 2021)
- Some Penguin Problems (coming on 28 September 2021)
Fifth grader Kate the Chemist uses STEM knowledge to do incredible things!
Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad: Absolute Hero by Valerie Tripp
- Illustrator: Geneva Bowers
- Age range: 8-12 years
- Number of pages: 193
- Illustrations: black & white
Izzy Newton and her friends use their collective skills and the power of science to tackle the school’s chilly mystery … and hopefully to fix a certain frozen friendship along the way.
Edie’s Experiments (series) by Charlotte Barkla
- Illustrator: Sandy Flett
- Age range: 9-12 years
- Number of pages: 240
- Illustrations: black & white
- Books in the series:
Edie loves science, so when she starts at a new school, she decides it could be one giant experiment. Between the great slime fiasco, the apology cookie surprise and the wrinkle cream mix-up, Edie discovers that making friends isn’t an exact science!
Nature Code Breakers by Tracy Borgmeyer
- Age range: 9-12 years
- Number of pages: 198
- Illustrations: none
Book 4 in the “Halley Harper, Science Girl Extraordinaire” series (published since 2017). Halley Harper decides that it’s time to give up science forever and focus on fitting in and being popular. But when someone steals her invention and one of her best friends goes missing, Halley has to solve the mysterious nature codes before it’s too late.
Elements of Genius (series) by Jess Keating
- Illustrator: Lissy Marlin
- Age range: 8-12 years
- Number of pages: 288
- Illustrations: black & white
- Books in the series:
Nikki Tesla is a great inventor. Together with her classmates from Genius Academy, school for history’s greatest brains, she has to save the world from global destruction.
Max Einstein (series) by James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein
- Illustrator: Beverly Johnson
- Age range: 8-14 years
- Number of pages: 352
- Illustrations: black & white
- Books in the series:
- The Genius Experiment (2018)
- Rebels with a Cause (2019)
- Saves the Future (2020)
- World Champions! (coming on 9 August 2021)
Max Einstein and a group of international geniuses use creativity, curiosity, and science to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems.
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Joy McCullough
- Age range: 8 up years
- Number of pages: 224
Sutton is a science-minded girl, who loves programming robots, while Luis is a budding fantasy writer allergic to bees and many other things. But when their parents start dating, the two kids have to find some common ground to navigate their way down a path they never planned on exploring.
Quintessence by Jess Redman
- Age range: 8-12 years
- Number of pages: 384
Twelve-year-old Alma is homesick and friendless. But one day she finds a telescope in the town’s junk shop, and through its lens, she watches a star fall from the sky and into her backyard. Alma knows it’s up to her to save the star. With the help of new friends from Astronomy Club, she sets out on a quest that will take a little bit of science, a little bit of magic, and her whole self.
Violet and the Pie of Life by Debra Green
- Coming on 9 March 2021
- Age range: 8-12 years
- Number of pages: 256
Twelve-year-old Violet loves math and pie most of all. Her parents are not perfect, and Violet thinks they could solve their problems if they just applied simple math. But when her dad leaves, Violet realizes that friendship and family have more variables than she thought.
You can find all the books from the list on my Bookshop page. Disclaimer: I’m an affiliate of Bookshop and may receive a small percentage of sales if you wish to purchase any of the recommended books.
