8 joyful, powerful books that teach s.t.e.m. by osmosis

This post was first published in June 2017 and, at the time, the fastest growing future jobs, with percentage growth over the following five years (U.S.), were predicted to be:

Online retailing – 32%
Translation services – 28%
Physical/occupational/speech therapy – 25%
Home health care – 24%
Retirement centers – 24%
Telemarketing bureaus, other customer contact centers – 20%
Marketing consulting – 20%
Environmental/conservation organizations – 19%
Computer system design – 19%
Portfolio management – 18%

And:

There was a projected jump of almost one third in the e-commerce workforce between then and 2021.

Crystal-balling the future is ever moving, but those predictions still seem to be pretty much on point. Which means today's kids will need to become comfortable with s.t.e.m. and s.t.e.a.m. concepts (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) as part of everyday life!

Fortunately, there's a wonderful subset of picture books to help with that. They're fun, beautiful and powerful, and they lead kids to the point of becoming s.t.e.m. and s.t.e.a.m. natives—which gives them so much advantage in interacting with the world, however it turns out for them.

Here's a small sampling:

3- 10-years | a boy, his passion, and a problem to be solved

5- 10-years | a brilliant exploration of a difficult concept

2- 8-years | Einstein's learning arc from baby to iconic genius

4- 10-years | a young girl discerns the lifecycle of a butterfly (a true story)

pre-teen & teen | quirky approach to numerical concepts

kids + grownups | inspirational female s.t.e.m. pioneers

5- to 10-years | funny stuff from a New Yorker cartoonist!

any age | the life of the first computer programmer (a true story)

Those are all perfect 's.t.e.m. by osmosis' books—I hope there's something in them that 'clicks' for you and is helpful for your youngies—and you can read our posts about other wonderful s.t.e.m. books here, if you'd like to click through.

Also, this site is an interesting and clear walk through STEM education.

P.S. A fabulous by-product of reading s.t.e.a.m. books aloud is that they're not just great for the child—they also drift into the subconscious of the grownup or sibling doing the reading. Everyone gets to feel stronger, more curious and more confident!