SCIENCE & NATURE: Our Favorite Picture Book Read-alouds

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I read dozens of picture books every month with my three children (12, 10, 8). This list includes only the very best science and math picture books we've read together. Note that some of these picture books are much textier than others (and might be read aloud best over multiple days). And while all the books below are wonderful and highly recommended, I have starred (*) our very favorites, many of which we purchased to enjoy again and again. We hope you enjoy all of these books as much as we have!

This list is continually updated every few months. 

Life Science

• Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs
• Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas (genetics)

Animals/ Zoology

• Bones: Skeletons and How They Work* and most any other book written and/or illustrated by Steve Jenkins
• Book of Bones: 10 Record-Breaking Animals
• Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives
• Just a Second

Ocean Life

• Coral Reef by Jason Chin
• Flying Deep
• Octopuses!: Strange and Wonderful and other books by Laurence Pringle and Meryl Henderson
• Octopuses One to Ten*
• Inky's Amazing Escape*
• Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands*
• Seashells by Melissa Stewart
• Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas

Mammals

• About Rodents (Also About Mammals, About Amphibians, About Birds, About Raptors, About Mollusks, etc. and habitat books such as: Seashores) and most any book by Cathryn Sill
• Animals Born Alive and Well* and most any other book by Ruth Heller
• Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends*
• Elephants of Africa and most any other book by Gail Gibbons
• Tooth & Claw: The Wild World of Big Predators* and most any other book by Jim Arnosky
• Bats! Strange and Wonderful

Books about Owls by Jim Arnosky (top and open, titled Thunder Birds), Laurence Pringle, and Gail Gibbons

Birds

(See this post for a more in depth description of 10 of our favorite picture book read-alouds about birds)

• Every Day Birds
• Birds by Kevin Henkes
• A Bird Is a Bird*
• Feathers: Not Just for Flying*
• Thunder Birds: Nature's Flying Predators*
• Woodpecker Wham!*
• Vulture View*
• Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City*
• On Duck Pond
• Jabber the Steller's Jay
• Owls!: Strange and Wonderful
• Beauty and the Beak

Eggs

• An Egg is Quiet
• Hatch!
• Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg
• Chickens Aren't the Only Ones
• Egg: Nature's Perfect Package

Insects

• Insect: Biggest! Littlest! and other books by Sandra Markle
• The Beetle Book* 

Human Body & Biology

• My Five Senses
• The Busy Body Book: A Kid's Guide to Fitness
• Nine Months* (fetal development)

Plants/ Botany

• Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life

Seeds

• Seeds Move*
• A Seed is Sleepy*
• It Starts with a Seed
• Plants Can't Sit Still
• A seed is the start (gorgeous photos!)
• From Seed to Plant

Trees

• Tell Me, Tree
• Redwoods* by Jason Chin

Physical Sciences 

Earth Science

• Volcano Rising
• Volcano Dreams
• Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest (full of math too!)
• The Story of Salt*
• A Rock is Lively
• Snowflake Bentley*
• Snowflakes in Photographs by W.A. Bentley
• The Secret Life of a Snowflake: An Up-Close Look at the Art and Science of Snowflakes*
• The Story of Snow
• Grand Canyon*
• The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane
• Rivers of Sunlight (how the sun powers the water cycle)

Astronomy

• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11*
• Margaret and the Moon
• Papa Put a Man on the Moon
• Counting on Katherine
• Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon (fiction, but one of my kids' very favorite books we read about the moon landing)
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I Know Exactly What You Are
• Caroline's Comets: A True Story

Chemistry

These books by Theodore Gray aren't really read-alouds, but it seems sad to have nothing here. I do think parts of these could be read-aloud. My son has read me many of his favorite passages.

• Elements
• Molecules
• Reactions

Physics

• Simple Machines (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
• My Light: How Sunlight Becomes Electricity (electricity, and how all forms of electrical energy trace back to the sun)

Some favorite authors for science and nature books (many of their individual books are listed above):

• Jason Chin (all topics - amazing illustrations, accessible to all ages)
• Steve Jenkins (animals and infographics, text amount varies from very little to a lot)
• Cathryn Sill (animals and habitats, short text with more information for each spread/ illustration in endnotes -- perfect for mixed age groups)
• Ruth Heller (animals, great for lower and upper elementary and above)
• Gail Gibbons (all topics, great for lower and upper elementary and above)
• Jim Arnosky (animals, lots of text - read in multiple sittings)
• Laurence Pringle and Meryl Henderson (animals, lots of text - read in multiple sittings)
• Sandra Markle (lots of text - read in multiple sittings)
• Dianna Aston (Author) Sylvia Long (Illustrator) 
• Joanna Cole: Magic School Bus series - (all topics) my kids love these, although they are a little tricky to read aloud because of all the text from dialogue and margin notes. The television series is awesome as well (bonus that the DVD is in English and Spanish!).

Here are links to all our favorite picture book read-alouds by subject: 

• History & Social Science Picture Books (includes biography) 
• Math Picture Books
• Science & Nature Picture Books
• Poetry & Shakespeare Picture Books
• Art & Music Picture Books
• Audiobooks for the Whole Family

What are your favorites?

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