February 11th, 2025 will mark the tenth year of the UN-sponsored International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day to commemorate the contributions — past, present, and future — that women have made to scientific advancement. Fortunately, there is a wealth of picture book biographies that celebrate women in STEM these days, and we’ve picked twelve of our favorites to share with your young readers.
Rosalind Looked Closer: An Unsung Hero of Molecular Science by Lisa Gerin, Illustrated by Chiara Fedele
The travesty of how Rosalind Franklin was betrayed by her male colleagues deserves to be shouted from the rooftops for eternity, so we are here for a book that portrays this injustice with poignancy. A brilliant chemist, crystallographer, and radiographer, Rosalind’s famous Photo 51 — which proved the double-helix structure of DNA — was shared without her consent by her male lab partner to two other researchers. All three men went on to write a paper taking credit for Rosalind’s discovery, which won a Nobel Prize, and Franklin was never credited for the work in her lifetime. Yet the narrative of Gerin and Fedele’s story is not spiteful, instead emphasizing that Rosalind’s true goal was to help the world through science.
Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed, Illustrated by Stasia Burrington
This gorgeous title looks at the early years of Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space. Dreaming of seeing the Earth from the cosmos, her parents encourage her by telling young Mae that such a goal is possible, but only through hard work and perseverance. When Mae shares her dream at school, however, the other children and the teacher laugh at her (the moment is framed and phrased subtly, but it’s clear that their derision is both gender- and race-motivated). Yet Mae refuses to let her doubters limit her aspirations and promises to wave to her parents from space one day — a promise she keeps.
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell, Illustrated by Natasha Donovan
In 1924, Mary Golda Ross was sixteen years old, attending college, and showing brilliant promise as a mathemetician and engineer. She was the only girl in most of her classes, and her male classmates typically refused to sit next to her, yet Mary was on a mission to not only make the grade but also to use her incredible mind for great things. She did, going on to design classified airplanes and spacecraft for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Cherokee author Sorell tells Mary’s story from an authentic cultural perspective that gives great depth to the intellectual and professional journey of an often-overlooked STEM heroine.
Tu Youyou’s Discovery: Finding a Cure for Malaria by Songju Ma Daemicke, Illustrated by Lin
Another female name in science that was intentionally obscured for decades, Chinese researcher Tu Youyou’s work in the 1960s and 70s led to the development of artemisinin, a medicine that cured chloroquine-resistant malaria. The illness had become an international health crisis at the time, but it was Youyou’s drive to combine the benefits of traditional and modern medicine — a partnership that had helped her recover from tuberculosis as a child — that led to her to a successful experimental outcome after 190 failed attempts. Youyou’s contributions to the project were suppressed for decades, however, though she was finally recognized with a Nobel Prize in 2015.
Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace by Jen Cullerton Johnson, Illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler
While often defined by history solely as an activist, Green Belt Movement founder Wangari Maathai was also a scientist who used her knowledge of biology and ecology to fight for the environment and the economic empowerment of women in her native Kenya and beyond. Wangari’s movement was ground-breaking, as it tied the destruction of agrarian spaces for coffee plantations to the disenfranchisement of native Kenyans — in particular, the female population — and encouraged Kenyan women to rise up and fight for their rights by planting trees and defending green spaces. She became the first African woman and environmentalist to win a Nobel Prize, and this book tells her story beautifully.
Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles by Patricia Valdez, Illustrated by Felicita Sala
As a young child, nothing brought Joan Procter more joy than her pet reptiles. While herpetology wasn’t exactly a typical hobby for a little girl at the turn of the 20th century, Joan’s fascination with them could not be tamed. She worked hard to become a respected and admired expert in the field, being promoted to Reptile Curator London Natural History Museum in her mid-20s. Valdez and Sala provide a beautiful retelling of Procter’s sadly short life — she died at 34 — that is filled with humor, determination, and a reverence of reptile kind that would make Joan proud, as well as much-appreciated disability representation (Joan was a wheelchair user later in life due to chronic illness).
Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark by Allen R. Wells, Illustrated by DeAndra Hodge
Young Yvonne Clark spent her childhood pulling apart broken household appliances and figuring out how to fix them, or even make them work better. Following this “remarkable spark” for fixing mechanical problems to a career in military and space engineering, Yvonne often faced discrimination as a Black woman in fields dominated by white men. However, her brilliance could not be denied, and her work would lead to the successful launch of the first unmanned Saturn V rocket by NASA. Wells, a former student of Clark, tells her story with warmth and respect, and Hodge’s bright illustrations endear the reader to Yvonne and her lifelong love of STEM.
Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist by Linda Skeers, Illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
You read that right: not the first female paleontologist, the first paleontologist. Led by an irrepressible curiosity about the unusual bones, shells, and fossils in the area of her Lyme Regis, England home, young Mary made a discovery one day that would change humankind’s understanding of their place in history. While it was years before the scientific community of her time took her discoveries seriously due to her gender, her work led to unprecedented scientific understanding, such as the concept of extinction and the discovery of dinosaurs.
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly with Winifred Conkling, Illustrated by Laura Freeman
While the success of the Hidden Figures biography and film of the same name have made Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden four of the more notable names on this list recently, their incredible mathematical contributions to the space race were forgotten for many years. The four women worked as “computers” at a time when such a name referred to a person and not a machine: a human being who could perform complicated mathematical calculations at a fast rate and with pinpoint accuracy. Shetterly and Conkling do a fantastic job adapting the former’s original biography, and Freeman’s rich art brings the women to life for generations of younger readers.
Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson, Illustrated by Rebecca Huang
Another sad story of a woman’s contributions to science being sidelined in favor of her male colleagues, the brilliant physicist Wu Chien Shiung was enlisted by fellow researchers to help with not one, not two, but three projects that went on to win Nobel Prizes… and Chien Shiung was not credited for any of it. Given a name meaning “Courageous Hero” and supported in all endeavors by her parents, Chien Shiung became a powerhouse mind in particle physics yet was consistently passed over for jobs and promotions due to her gender and race. Robeson’s text and Huang’s art beautifully acknowledge her rightful disappointment at these injustices and also focus on Chien Shiung’s inspiring drive and self-advocacy.
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky
An absolute treasure trove of women in STEM, this incredible compendium features several of the trailblazing women mentioned above as well as dozens more. A clear and impressive labor of love from Ignotofsky, each two-page spread honors a heroine of the STEM community with a several-paragraph summary of their life and work alongside immaculately detailed illustrations of the woman herself and the field of science to which she dedicated herself. Celebrating figures from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, Ignotofsky further encourages young scientists with illustrated guides of lab equipment, timelines, and inspirational quotes.
A Steminist Force: A STEM Picture Book for Girls by Laura Carter, Illustrated by Anna Doherty
Lastly, we would be remiss to commemorate women in STEM without celebrating its future: the girls and young women who will become the next innovators and pioneers. Tying the past to the present, little girls of all shapes, sizes, skin tones, abilities, and gender presentations are shown interacting with the great female STEM minds of the past — again, several from the books above, but plenty of new names and faces as well. Not only do Carter and Doherty provide an introduction to many women who made scientific breakthroughs, but they also highlight the myriad of fields in which aspiring young minds can make their mark.
We hope that you and your little ones enjoy these books and use them to add to your own recognition of the many ways that women have contributed, are contributing, and will contribute to science and the world with their powerful and magnificent minds. Happy reading!
For more kids’ books that celebrate innovative minds, check out this article on brilliant picture books about child inventors.
To see all of our recommendations for mini bookworms, check out our Bookshop bookshelf.
