Literacies in Engineering

Oil tells the true story of the lasting environmental impacts of a 1977 oil spill. While children are its audience, the book makes a clear point to readers of all ages that natural resources like oil can come at a high price, and must be treated with care...

Biology and engineering collide when oil spills occur. This book uses the Exxon-Valdez oil spill as an example to demonstrate the devastating environmental impact. Illustrations show how oil spills happen,

After WWII, the children of Berlin relied on the Chocolate Pilot to deliver candy from the sky. In postwar Germany, candy was a luxury that few German children would have enjoyed without his help

Maryam Mirzakhani might not be a household name, but she broke barriers in mathematics, creating new formulas and theorems that drove numerous STEM fields forward -- despite facing adversity when it came to getting an education in Iran.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas fought for the preservation of the Everglades throughout her life -- well into her 90s! Thanks to her persistence, the Florida Everglades are protected, and birds, turtles, and plants can flourish there.

Margaret Hamilton is a trailblazer whose aptitude for mathematics helped her rise through the ranks of institutions like M.I.T. and NASA. She built a career as a software engineer using computers to help man safely land on the moon.

Many is more picture-heavy than text-driven, and illustrates the great diversity of life on Earth. It's a great introduction to any unit on biology, as it touches on life forms large and small. The conclusion encourages students to be mindful of how conse...

This book provides a snapshot of Dr. Mae Jemison's childhood. As an African-American girl, the odds of her becoming an astronaut were not in her favor. The narrative of this book shows how her family's encouragement helped her to overcome some of the earl...

Back in the 1800s, calculators were just on the horizon and computers were unimaginable. But Ada Byron Lovelace actually developed a program for one of the world's first calculators, and her work would go on to inspire computer programmers well into the f...

Distilling something as complicated as a locomotive to a book that anyone can understand is a difficult feat, and Brian Floca has done it. Locomotive follows a 19th century train from the east coast to the west coast

Poor Karl is an Abyssinian hornbill with a beak that's too short to enjoy eating like all the other hornbills. His keepers were especially worried about him, so they decided to use 3-D printing technology to create a prosthetic.

Many of the books we've included have to do with people who have invented important and useful technologies. Just Like Rube Goldberg, on the other hand, is about an inventor who prided himself on creating complicated and un-useful machines

If you want to know how jumbo jets fly, this is the book for you. Not only does it provide information on the development of the 747, it breaks down the scientific principles that allow jets to fly.

Depending on where you're located, your students may or may not have experience with plows. But everyone has farmers to thank for the food on their table, and plows are one of their most important tools.

Instructions Not Included tells the story of Betty Snider, Jean Jennings, and Kay McNulty: three female programmers of ENIAC, one of the world’s first computers developed during WW2.

How We Got Here traces the history of six key principles: Glass, cold, sound, clean, time and light. Johnson demonstrates how innovations in these fields influenced other aspects of human history.

If you want to introduce students to computer programming, you couldn't ask for a better text. We follow Pearl and her robot Pascal through an amusement park, which becomes an allegory for programming.

This comprehensive book provides many examples of "accidental geniuses" who made important contributions to STEM. Along with photos and interesting information, it lays out pointers for students who want to follow in their footsteps.

It's hard to find interactive books for older readers, but How Cities Work breaks the mold. This book breaks down everything from concepts like allotments to fixtures like City Hall.

Hedy Lamarr might not be familiar to kids today, but they're certainly familiar with movie stars like her. Hedy Lamarr's Double Life is an inspiring story about how an A-list actress was inspired by engineering design, and how she eventually contributed t...

While many people are familiar with electric guitars, and even Les Paul guitars, fewer people realize that Les Paul was so young when he pioneered the invention.

Gregor Mendel was a pioneer in genetics, studying pea pods to learn about genetic traits and how they're passed down. Beautiful illustrations don't just set the scene, they also demonstrate the principle of how traits are passed down through multiple gene...

Even today there are far more males than females working in IT, making Grace Hopper all the more remarkable. A mathematics prodigy, she joined the Navy during WWII and programmed one of the very first computers.

It's impossible to overstate the impact Google has had on the world. Everything is at our fingertips, from historical documents to the latest movies, and Google is responsible for organizing it and making it accessible.

This book has it all: a rhyming narrative, great visuals (including diagrams), a timeline, an original interview with Temple Grandin, and supplemental biographical material.

Lots of people associate Henry Ford with the assembly line, but fewer people realize he was a pioneer of chemurgy, the study of how everyday materials can be used as building blocks for other products.

In 64 pages, Food Engineering packs a punch, breaking down in simple but detailed terms how food engineering words, key stages to understand, different industry careers, and much more

Students who enjoy flowcharts and diagrams will love Follow the Link. It follows modern transportation from its early roots to present day, starting with basic concepts like lava and caves. Illustrations and laser-focused text simplify the journey.

The Ferris Wheel is often taken for granted in a world of roller coasters and thrill rides, but without it, we wouldn't have the rides that continue to delight us to this day.

Every great invention was preceded by many failures, and that's the concept illustrated in Epic Fails. This chapter book includes photos depicting the Wright brothers throughout their lives, along with the numerous iterations of their flying machine.

This introductory text shows how engineering design is responsible for many innovations that make our lives easier, from vacuums to bicycles. With lots of photographs, it shows and tells students about the discipline. It's a great precursor to a science f...

Elon Musk is sometimes a controversial figure. He's famous for his bold choices, which have led him to become a pioneer in fields like electric vehicles. But before he became an engineering icon, Elon spent years working hard and honing his creativity.

Nikola Tesla was the underdog in the Current Wars, but his revolutionary alternating current won the day. This is the story of how Tesla made and marketed his discovery

Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover is told in the first-person, from the perspective of a Mars rover.

Mary Golda Ross started out as a teacher, but her talent and passion for STEM led her to become a key engineer on a number of top secret projects. Her outreach to other Native American and female students has helped to diversify the STEM field.

Codes have been around for ages, and so have codebreakers. Not only does this book introduce students to the purposes of codes and the histories of many codes, it shows them how to crack codes.

Nicola Tesla is famous thanks to his rivalry with Thomas Edison, but Bright Dreams tells his story from the very beginning. Key chapters in his life are covered, and sidebars provide more details on concepts like electricity, alternators, generators, and ...

Born Just Right is partly a story about design, and partly a story about learning to accept yourself and others the way they are.

Born Curious tells the stories of 20 women who made important contributions to STEM, from Ellen Swallow Richards to Shirley Ann Jackson.

The rhyming text of this book inspires students to be makers in the broadest sense: making snacks, building houses, discovering new things, and so forth.

If your students love superheroes, this chapter book is sure to captivate them. Each of the four comprehensive chapters takes a deep dive into the science behind Batman's gear. An introduction on the relationship between science, engineering, and superher...

Exploring space and exploring the ocean actually require many of the same skill sets and even technologies. While everyone recognizes space as the next frontier, most of the ocean is still unexplored as well.

When it comes to garbage, most of us consider it "out of sight, out of mind." But the problem of where to put our garbage isn't a simple one. It's perfectly exemplified by the "garbage barge" of 1987, which couldn't find anywhere to unload thousands of to...

Back in the 1600s, high-powered microscopes and photographs were years away. That's why it was all the more impressive when, using a microscope he built himself, Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered microbes

While the reading level of this text is likely best suited to elementary students, the practical information is enlightening and could be useful to older students. Plastic bottles go through a complex journey from the time they're found to the time they'r...

Ada lives in an impoverished town in Paraguay where the main source of employment is a landfill. When a local man offers music lessons, she and other children are enthusiastic to sign up, but soon find that there aren't enough instruments to go around.

Katherine Johnson is a math genius with a natural aptitude. She skipped multiple grades in school and excelled in college. She decided to put her skills to work outside of the classroom when she applied for a job as a human computer at Langley, and the re...

Although the Wright Bros. invented the first airplane, countless inventors like Lilian Todd have improved on their designs, leading to the airplanes we have today. Lilian was relentless in her quest

Many people associate American rocketry with NASA, but its origins go back decades further to Robert Goddard. When Sparks Fly tells the story of Goddard's childhood interest in science,

Social change is always tied to politics, and When Rivers Burned does a great job of telling the story of Earth Day's inception without polarizing. Detailed information provides a great start to research

What Color is My World? is the perfect addition to any classroom library. The main narrative is about two kids fixing up their new house with mysterious Mr. Mital, who knows a lot about African-American inventors

Although it's populated with vibrant illustrations and photos, What a Waste provides relevant statistics and facts about trash and recycling. It's a great choice for students wanting to research

Water rights are a major issue for countless Native American tribes, and We are Water Protectors explains the situation from the Ojibwe point of view.

The Brooklyn Bridge is an engineering marvel, and one of the first of its kind. While students might not all be familiar with this specific bridge, they have likely crossed many bridges like it.

Many of us are familiar with the story of the Thai soccer team's rescue from a flooded cave, but Titan and the Wild Boars relates the events from the perspective of one of the trapped boys

This is a great book for generating interest in a common and often forgotten topic: waste management.

Many American kids take soccer fields for granted, but not everyone lives in an area with enough room for one. Consider Prasit and his friends, who lived on an island in Thailand and could only play soccer when the tide went out.

We wouldn't exactly call this book a pleasure read, but it's an excellent reference guide for students looking to learn more about the elements. Technical explanations are accompanied by colorful illustrations and graphics, and it's simple for students to...

Crayons are so ubiquitous today they're almost taken for granted, but they weren't always around.

TV sets are ubiquitous in every household today, but that wasn't the case when Philo Farnsworth was a kid. He marveled at innovations like electricity and radio, and longed to be on the cutting-edge of new technologies.

Many American children don't think twice about having electricity, but it's not a given for everyone. Even in parts of the U.S. not everyone has electricity. When a young boy in Malawi loses electricity, his family and entire village stand to lose a lot....

If you think you need to be a STEM genius to come up with a groundbreaking innovation, think again. Band-Aids were invented by a regular couple who wanted a simpler way to tend to small cuts. Here, see how the idea was born and developed, and how students...

Kids and adults love superheroes more than ever, making this a great text to grab their attention. This chapter book focuses on Superman's superhuman abilities, from flying to stopping trains in their tracks.

This is ostensibly a book about the many applications of spider silk, but the topics it covers range from baby goats to strawberries.

Silent Spring changed the way Americans think about conservation, and Spring After Spring tells the story of its author, Rachel Carson.

Louis Braille isn't on many lists of famous inventors, but he should be. Just like any engineer, Braille identified an inefficient system (reading for the blind) and worked to improve it, all on his own

Part of the "Usborne Flap Book" series, See Inside Great Cities is printed on light cardboard with over 70 flaps that students can lift to get a closer look inside the many illustrated buildings.

Lots of people are familiar with the idea of subway systems, even if they don't have one in their own city. Secret Subway tells the story of Alfred Beach, who created a pneumatic subway in New York City

Readers who aren't familiar with the Brooklyn Bridge will be familiar with suspension bridges like it, and Secret Engineer not only tells the story behind the bridge, but clearly explains the technology and principles behind suspension bridges.

We don't give much thought to crash test dummies every time we step into a car, but the truth is we owe them a good deal when it comes to the safety features on today's automobiles.

Samuel Morse is framed as the father of modern instant communication in this beautifully illustrated biography. Maurer traces the invention of Morse code from its inception to widespread use

They say that pictures speak louder than words, and that's certainly true in Rosie Revere, Engineer. The story is perfect for a class read-aloud or silent reading,

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the biggest names in architecture, and Prairie Boy goes back to the beginning, when he was a child fascinated by blocks and shapes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the significance of Dr. Jonas Salk's work into clearer focus for many. A pioneer of vaccines, he helped develop flu vaccines and the polio vaccine.

We take it for granted that the food we buy at the store is safe to eat, but that wasn’t always the case. Learn about the people and systems who constantly work to eliminate dangerous ingredients

Not only does Ana Pego teach us about the many devastating environmental impacts of ocean plastics, she inspires students to become activists for the issues they're passionate about

Most people have played Monopoly at some point, but the history of the game is almost as entertaining as the game itself. In this book, learn about the original inventor of Monopoly

Single-use plastic bags present a sustainability problem worldwide. They're tough to recycle, harmful to wildlife, and more are produced every day. Isatou and her friends come up with a creative solution to reduce waste while creating a sturdier product....