Kids’ Corner: STEM Picture Books Featuring Female Main Characters

Last week I read my 4-year-old her favorite book (at the moment) for the 100th time, Violet the Pilot.

*Side note: this was our most recent book from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.  If you do not know about this program, you can read all about it here → Kids’ Corner: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Anyways!  I actually don’t mind reading this book to her so many times because I loved how the book features a GIRL engineer/pilot.  This jogged a memory from last year when I read Ada Twist, Scientist and had similar feelings.  It is so wonderful to read STEM books featuring girl main characters.  STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  When browsing the picture books at the library, I notice that my daughter is drawn to books with anything princess, fairy, unicorn, ballerina, etc.  They are often very PINK and very sparkly.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with these books, actually they often hold important themes & lessons, HOWEVER it is also nice to see books that center around girls in traditionally male-dominated fields like science & math.

Long story short, I started researching to find more STEM picture books that featured girl main characters.  Sadly, I was disappointed with my findings.  There are very few of these books.

Here are the books I did find…

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Kids’ Corner: Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman

When I was contacted with the opportunity to read & review Pink is for Boys, I jumped at the opportunity.  For one, I’m always on the lookout for books that challenge the traditional gender norms to share with my children, and secondly I could tell it was going to be wonderfully illustrated.  That’s a win-win in my book!

Kids’ Corner: #BabyLove: My Toddler Life by Corine Dehghanpisheh

When I read the description for #BabyLove: My Toddler Life, I was very intrigued with the overall moral of the story:  to put down our phones (and/or other devices) and focus on our loved ones.  In this new technology savvy era full of mobile devices and social media, it has now become the norm for parents to share important milestones in their children’s lives via social media.  But at what point does it cross the line from occasionally updating family & friends to oversharing?  While you are busy taking multiple pictures, uploading to social media, and monitoring how many “likes” the picture of you and little Johnny at the zoo gets, are you in fact missing out on the memory itself?  What an interesting concept for a children’s book!

Kids’ Corner: Beautifully Different by Dana Salim + Author Q&A + #Giveaway

I am back today with another installment within my Kids’ Corner division of my blog!  I was given the opportunity to read & review Dana Salim’s Beautifully Different, a children’s picture book that teaches children that our differences are what make us special & beautiful.  Dana was also gracious enough to answer a few questions for me about her writing, her publishing company (DS Publishing), and diversity within children’s books.   There is also an opportunity to win a copy of Beautifully Different!

Kids’ Corner: Diverse Children’s Picture Books in Review (April 2017)

Hello bookworms!

I’m excited to share with you a few diverse children’s picture books that I read over the past month.

Let’s see what I read shall we?

*If you are new to my blog, I review a batch of diverse children’s picture books monthly.  What do I mean by diverse children’s picture books?  I mean children’s picture books that are written by or about people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and any other minorities.  The #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement has inspired me to not only reevaluate my reading, but also the books I read to my children.  Diversity in books is just as (if not more) important in children’s literature.  Children are our future, so it is our job to teach them to celebrate diversity.

Books included in this post: Have You Seen Elephant? , Catherine’s Story, The Sandwich Swap, Elena’s Serenade, & The Only Child

Representation: biracial character; character with physical & mental disabilities; Mexican character (also set in Mexico); Chinese character (inspired by China’s one-child policy)