The Picture Book Buzz - March 2025 Interview with STEAM Team Books Members (Part 1)
Whether you're here to support the STEAM Team authors, curiosity, or because you love nonfiction books, I hope you read to the end because you'll discover some amazing authors and super spectacular books!
Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to five creatives from the STEAM Team Books – a group of authors and illustrators who joined together to celebrate and help promote their STEAM books. I hope you enjoy this peek at these delightful books and fascinating creatives.
"STEAM Team Books is a group of authors who have a STEM/STEAM book releasing in 2025. It includes fiction & nonfiction, trade or educational books.” Check out their website for other interviews, activities, and bios.
Tell us a little about yourself. (Where/when do you write? How long have you been writing? What is your favorite type of book to write? What drew you to STEAM books? etc.)
Elizabeth Shreeve – On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch 3/4/2025) – I grew up in a family of writers and scientists along the Atlantic coastline. In 9th grade, my English teacher challenged us by saying that unless you can explain something in words, you really don’t understand it. Yikes! This statement doomed me to life as a writer. Starting with poetry and journaling as a child and then decades of business writing for my job in the architecture field, I started writing stories for my kids and became the author of children’s books. These days, from our home in the Bay Area, I’m focused on nonfiction, returning happily to early interests in geology, biology, paleontology, and art history.
[Author of 9 books, including The Oddball Book of Armadillos, illustrated by Isabella Grott (2024), The Upside-Down Book of Sloths, illustrated by Isabella Grott (2023), Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (2021), Captain Freddy Counts Down to School, illustrated by Joey Chou (2016), Oliver at the Window, illustrated by Candice Hartsough McDonald (2009), and The Adventures of Hector Fuller chapter book series, illustrated by Pamela R. Levy (2004).]
Melissa Stewart – Meet the Mini-mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum (Beach Lane/ Simon & Schuster 3/4/2025) –– Many writers know what they want to do from a very young age, but I never considered writing as a career option until a college professor suggested it. Up until then, I didn’t even know writing was a job. No one I knew was a writer, and my school didn’t host author visits. I’ll always be very grateful to that professor for seeing a talent in me and letting me know.
I do most of my writing in a spare bedroom in my house. My husband leaves for work at 5:45 a.m., so that’s when I start to write. When I get stuck, I stop to take a shower. Something about the steam and running water frees my mind, and I usually solve the problem. After lunch, I switch my focus to researching, planning school visits, and taking care of business tasks. I stop working at 4:30 p.m., so I can start making dinner.
Rachel Carson once said, “Science gives me something to write about,” and I couldn’t agree more. I enjoy writing at a variety of different levels, from board books to books for adults, but grade 3 is really my sweet spot.
[Author of more than 200 books, including Thank You, Moon: Celebrating Nature's Nightlight, illustrated by Jessica Lanan (2023), Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-floor Ecosystem, illustrated by Rob Dunlavey (2023), Tree Hole Homes, illustrated by Amy Hevron (2022), Summertime Sleepers: Animals That Estivate, illustrated by Sarah Brannen (2021), Ick! Delightfully Disgusting Animal Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses (2020). She also co-wrote 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books and edited the anthology Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing.]
Kate Hannigan – Rachel Carson’s Wonder-filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environment Movement (Astra/Calkins Creek 3/11/2025) – I come from newspaper journalism, so interesting people and exciting moments are what make my world go round. I get up quite early every day and write, trying hard to focus on just one project at a time rather than the seven or so that are simmering in my mind! My suspiciously smart border collie, Kevin, is my writing companion. I walk him when I need to give things a good think, and I wrap up in the evening. While I do write fiction as well as nonfiction, my real love is research. It’s hard to say what books are my favorite to write. But I do love when a reader says, “Did that really happen?” and I can say, “Yes, it’s true!”
[Author of 14 books, including Josephine and Her Dishwashing Machine: Josephine Cochrane's Bright Invention Makes a Splash, illustrated Sarah Green (2023), History Comics: World War II: Fight on the Home Front, illustrated by Josh Rosen (2023), Blips on a Screen: How Ralph Baer Invented TV Video Gaming and Launched a Worldwide Obsession, illustrated by Zachariah Ohora (2022), Nellie vs. Elizabeth: Two Daredevil Journalists' Breakneck Race around the World, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (2022), History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire: Rising From the Ashes, illustrated by Alex Graudins (2020), Cape (1) (The League of Secret Heroes), illustrated by Patrick Spaziante (2019), and A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women's Rights, illustrated by Alison Jay (2018) .]
Sarah Albee - Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn't (Charlesbridge 3/11/2025) - I begin my workday early, generally around 6 am, and am definitely a morning writer. After lunch I tend to concentrate on answering emails, arranging school visits, and running errands. I’m mostly a middle-grade writer, although my last three books have all been long-form picture books, and my favorite topics to write about are nearly always a mash-up of disciplines, usually science and history (see my recent book, Bounce! A Scientific History of Rubber), or art and history (see my recent book The Painter and the President: Gilbert Stuart’s Brush with George Washington), or, as in the case of Zero: The Number that Almost Wasn’t, math and history.
[Author of over 100 books, including The Painter and the President, illustrated by Stacy Innerst (2024), Troublemakers in Trousers: Women and What They Wore to Get Things Done (2022), Fairy Tale Science (2021), Accidental Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries (2020), Jane Goodall: A Champion of Chimpanzees (I Can Read Level 2), illustrated by Gustavo Mazali (2020), North America: A Fold-out Graphic History (2019), Dog Days of History: The Incredible Story of Our Best Friends (2018), Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines (2017), and Why'd They Wear That?: Fashion as the Mirror of History (2015).]
Nora Nickum – This Book Bubbles Over: From the Ocean to Mars and Everywhere in Between (Peachtree 3/11/2025) – I love writing quirky and conversational nonfiction for kids, particularly about science topics. I have a busy day job leading ocean conservation programs at the Seattle Aquarium, so I squeeze in writing and editing time in the early mornings and on weekends.
[Author of This Book Is Full of Holes (2024) and Superpod: Saving the Endangered Orcas of the Pacific Northwest (2023).]
What helps you to be inspired? (perhaps a certain place, music, activity, etc.)
Elizabeth Shreeve – Like many writers, I find inspiration in nature—the ocean beach, a hillside trail, a forest. Many brilliant authors, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Rebecca Solnit, have commented on the value of walking. I love visiting museums, too. Natural history museums, of course—and I also love to wander art collections. Ancient art, in particular, always reminds me of the human drive to express and create. And reading!
Melissa Stewart – The natural world. When I’m stuck on a manuscript, spending time in nature rejuvenates my mind and my spirit. And so many of my book ideas have come from experiences I’ve had or questions I’ve asked while exploring fields and forests near my home as well as new-to-me habitats around the world.
I’m lucky to have taken many amazing trips throughout my career, to places like East Africa, the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, the American Southwest, Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island, and more. I record my experiences in nature journals, and then I can refer back to these notes later as I write books. Recollecting my raw experiences in the field brings a richness, a vibrancy to my text, which makes it more engaging.
Kate Hannigan – I do a lot of school visits, and students energize me. I try to eat lunch with a book club or group of young readers, and it’s a great source of inspiration. I love hearing what they enjoy reading, what interests them, the language that’s familiar to them. New ideas, fresh takes, and so much excitement. And I try to get outside and into nature every day, on long walks or throwing a ball with my dog, and on vacations—I’m happiest when I’m hiking.
Sarah Albee – I read very broadly, across genres, centuries, and disciplines, and while I don’t necessarily read every book cover-to-cover, I often—often!—get ideas from books I read. But I also find inspiration outside the library—sometimes I’ll get an idea when I’m traveling in a new place, or from a plaque on a building, or a chance comment from a non-writer friend. I’ve learned that what’s most important is to be open to seeing and listening.
Nora Nickum – I get a lot of inspiration from my job at the Seattle Aquarium and visiting the amazing animals that live there, and as a result, my books seem to always include ocean examples. This Book Bubbles Over, for example, includes humpback whales, surfers, and underwater volcanoes.
Now that we know a little more about all of you, what sparked your interest and caused you to write this book?
Elizabeth Shreeve – On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (3/4/2025) – On an Ocean Journey began with the artwork. In early 2022, Alaska-based artist Ray Troll sent me an email. Would I consider a picture book collaboration? Imagine my delight! (I’m a huge fan.) Ray filled my inbox with gorgeous, colored-pencil drawings of marine animals that he’d created as a mural project for a marine science building near Monterey, California. Then it was up to me to transform a collection of images into a picture book. What a joy to spend time with Ray’s stunning, scientifically accurate renderings!
Melissa Stewart – Meet the Mini-mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum (3/4/2025) – Back in 2019, I was really struggling to come up with a topic for a new book, so I asked my husband, Gerard, what he thought I should write about. He gave a one-word answer: “Munchkins!”
That made me laugh. Munchkins, or mini-munchkins, is a collective name we use for our five nieces and nephews —Iris, Colin, Emile, Claire, and Caroline. In the past, I’ve written books inspired by all of them, so Gerard’s answer was just a joke. But it made me think. The world is full of animals that are small and adorable, and kids would probably like to know more about them.
Then I wondered … how would I choose animals to include? Since I’m a mammal (and so are my young readers), that seemed like the obvious choice. I decided to countdown twenty adorable mammals smaller than the width of my hand—8.25 inches. Then I dug into the research.
The final book is a whole lot different from my initial vision, and you can learn more about that by watching this video. But it wouldn’t exist without that smart-alecky suggestion from my husband.
Kate Hannigan – Rachel Carson’s Wonder-filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environment Movement (3/11/2025) – I like writing about women who have done amazing things but not received the attention they deserved. Rachel Carson is well-known as “the mother of the environmental movement,” but I wondered if the reasons behind her significance might sound a little inaccessible to children. When I read her essay (later turned into a book) about engaging with the natural world with a sense of wonder, and holding onto that wonder throughout our lives, I could see a book start to take shape. The joys of childhood are rooted in exploration, and to protect the natural world we have to first cultivate a deep love for it. I thought Rachel’s girlhood, where she carried a notebook and magnifying glass into the woods and recorded what she saw, was something any young reader could connect with. And how she took those childhood loves—for bugs and critters and how nature worked, as well as for writing in her notebook—and turned them into grown-up careers as a writer and a scientist. It’s a powerful thing for kids to see, that they can turn what interests them into something bigger than themselves.
Sarah Albee - Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn't (3/11/2025) – First off, I’ve always wondered why our Western calendar seems . . . off. Why are the 1800s known as the 19th century? And I’ve also always been curious about why we call our numbers the “Hindu-Arabic number system.” But what clinched the idea to write about the history of zero was a fact I learned after I wrote a book called Accidental Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries. In that book, I recount how ordinary people (ie non-archaeologists) stumbled across major archaeological discoveries by accident, discoveries that changed what we thought we knew about history. And after that book was out, I became much more attuned to these chance discoveries, and I stumbled across a story about how a farmer in India (now part of Pakistan) unearthed an ancient manuscript in his field that had the first use of zero as a number. That was my shazam moment.
Nora Nickum – This Book Bubbles Over: From the Ocean to Mars and Everywhere in Between (3/11/2025) – This Book Bubbles Over follows on from my picture book that Peachtree published in 2024, which was called This Book is Full of Holes. For that one, I had so much fun thinking about and researching examples of holes from all different STEAM disciplines, and I wanted to try doing the same with another shape. I brainstormed all different shapes and ideas, but bubbles felt most kid-friendly and yielded the most interesting examples--from bubbles in wetsuits, bread dough, and Martian rocks, to bubbles made by animals in order to cool down, sniff, or trap food. I am thrilled that illustrator Robert Meganck was also able to work on this second book; his funny and quirky illustrations are so wonderful.
What makes you passionate about being a children’s author?
Elizabeth Shreeve – It’s our challenge and privilege to write for young readers—to bring topics and ideas to them in the best form we can and encourage curiosity, creativity, and a broader understanding of the world. I care deeply about environmental issues and hope that our science-based books will connect children to a love of the natural world. From a selfish perspective, I love the research and writing process—it stretches my brain into new topics and forces me to articulate ideas. Once a nerd, always a nerd…
Melissa Stewart – Everything. I love researching. And writing. And sharing books with kids. I can’t imagine a better job for me.
Kate Hannigan – I feel very close to the 10 year old I once was. I have great memories of tearing around my neighborhood, free-range, and learning about people and things. And I think books are more important now than ever to help kids connect with each other and the world.
Sarah Albee – It’s a combination of writing about stuff I find fascinating and then challenging myself to make it interesting enough for kids to care about it. I started my career at Sesame Street, and that was when I realized my true calling was writing for kids. Nowadays I write for a slightly older crowd, but they’re still kids, and I can’t think of a more perfect job.
Nora Nickum – I love how curious kids are about the world, and I get so excited going down research rabbit holes to find fascinating information to share with young readers.
Is there anything special you want your readers to know about your book?
Text © Elizabeth Shreeve, 2025. Image © Ray Troll, 2025.
Elizabeth Shreeve – On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (3/4/2025) - I’m excited to share this book with younger kids, ages 5-9. It’s a fun read-aloud and also lends itself to creative writing and visual art projects. The “Field Guide” at the end provides details on each animal along with links for learning about the ocean and how to protect it. Oh, and there’s an Activity Kit! The publisher prepared it, with input from Ray and me. Students can do word searches, color ocean scenes, or create their own tales using images from the book. Add imagination, a dash of color…voila, a story!
Text © Melissa Stewart, 2025. Image © Brian Lies, 2025.
Melissa Stewart – Meet the Mini-mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum (3/4/2025) – In addition to the video I made to go with the book, I also created a Read Aloud Guide and a Readers Theater Script. I hope educators will find these resources useful.
Text © Kate Hannigan, 2025. Image © Katie Hickey, 2025.
Kate Hannigan – Rachel Carson’s Wonder-filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environment Movement (3/11/2025) – Rachel Carson was one person. She cared about nature—the oceans and lakes and rivers and all the birds and bugs and animals of the earth— and what humans were doing to protect the natural world as well as to harm it. And while it might feel like one person can’t do much to make things better, Rachel shows us what’s possible. That one person can use the gifts they have—for Rachel, it was as a writer and a scientist—to truly make the world better.
Text © Sarah Albee, 2025. Image © Chris Hsu, 2025.
Sarah Albee - Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn't (3/11/2025) - I’m hoping by learning about zero’s history kids will appreciate (at least a little!) the relevance of math to their daily lives.
Text © Nora Nickum, 2025. Image © Robert Meganck, 2025.
Nora Nickum – This Book Bubbles Over: From the Ocean to Mars and Everywhere in Between (3/11/2025) – My favorite page is about the short-beaked echidna--don't miss that one. I had to email my editor immediately when I found that bubble example in my research, and her reaction was something like, "That is disgusting and also amazing. It definitely has to go in the book!"
What was the hardest, or most challenging, part of writing or researching your book? Was there a bit of your research you didn’t get to include?
Elizabeth Shreeve – On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (3/4/2025) – Ray provided about 50 drawings, which was too many for a picture book. (Each image deserved a full page or spread; we ended up with 22.) After researching each animal, I spread out the drawings and began to edit while also conjuring possible storylines. Some images were especially striking; those made the cut. (Fortunately, Ray’s favorites coincided with mine.) He’s a big fan of fish, but I wanted a variety of creatures including reptiles, birds, and marine mammals. (Sorry, fish!) After writing a fact-driven manuscript that my agent couldn’t sell, I hit on a simple approach that takes readers from shallow to deeper waters. Less science, more poetry!
Melissa Stewart – Meet the Mini-mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum (3/4/2025) – I changed directions several times as I was writing the book, searching for the right hook. At one point, the book featured 20 mini-mammals because, well, there are just so many amazing, tiny critters in our world. My critique group let me know that 20 animals was just too many, and I needed to make some painful cuts to get down to the 10 minis in the final book.
Kate Hannigan – Rachel Carson’s Wonder-filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environment Movement (3/11/2025) – It’s one thing to write about an unknown. It’s something else entirely to write about a well-known and much-loved figure. Rachel Carson is beloved. I didn’t want to cover her entire life, and I didn’t want to write something that scares young readers about the state of the planet. So, I zeroed in on that abiding trait she’d written about later in life, her sense of wonder.
Sarah Albee - Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn't (3/11/2025) - Explaining some rather complex math in the context of a picture book. Zero plays an essential role from place value all the way to calculus and binary coding. Luckily I was able to consult with a lot of experts, including math teachers, mathematicians, and math historians.
Nora Nickum – This Book Bubbles Over: From the Ocean to Mars and Everywhere in Between (3/11/2025) – I did a LOT of research--enough for two dozen books, in a way, given how many different kinds of bubbles I was writing about. I needed to have plenty of reliable sources to inform each page, even though the final text is only sidebar-length.
Bubble examples that didn't ultimately get featured in the text included ones associated with carbonated beverages, diving bell spiders, pistol shrimp, and sea otters, as well as methane bubbles that rise from the seafloor. I needed to focus on the examples that worked best with the structure of the book, which revolves around opposites (like "Bubbles can be protective...or dangerous").
Are there any upcoming projects that you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
Elizabeth Shreeve – My next publication will be a middle grade book entitled Dinosaurs to Dragons: The Lore and Science of Mythical Creatures. It’s coming from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster in the next year or so, with artwork by Violeta Encarnacion combined with photographs. The project has stretched my science-oriented mind into archaeology, mythology, and history. Mind-stretching is good!
Melissa Stewart – Bam to Burp! A Carbon Atom’s Never-ending Journey through Space and Time and YOU, illustrated by the amazing artist Marta Álvarez Miguéns, is scheduled to come out later this year. I can’t share the cover quite yet, but here’s a sneak peek at an interior spread.
Text © Melissa Stewart, 2025. Image © Marta Álvarez Miguéns, 2025.
The art is so fun and colorful! I think kids are going to love it.
Kate Hannigan – Coming next from me will be a bit more focus on the “A” in STEAM! I’m looking at Little Women author Louisa May Alcott and how she learned to write. And I’ve stumbled on a gem of an idea that has to do with our National Park Service and how we’ve got to protect the special places around the country before we lose them.
Sarah Albee - I have a soon-to-be-announced book about my favorite genus of dinosaur—it’s one of the sauropods (those huge, four-legged herbivores with long necks and tails that thrived during the late-Jurassic). I’ve always been a dino-fanatic, and I cannot wait to share this story with my readers!
Nora Nickum – I'm working on revisions for my middle-grade nonfiction book, Wild Medicine, which is coming out from Tilbury next year. It's about how diseases threaten some endangered species--like bats, condors, corals, and ferrets--and how people are using innovation, creativity, and technology to diagnose what's wrong and try to save these animals out in the wild.
Last question, what animal or natural feature (place) do you want to learn more about? Why?
Elizabeth Shreeve – Last year, after an amazing trip to the Sub-Antarctic Islands, I drafted a picture book about penguins and albatrosses. Did you know that these two birds—a deep diver and a master of flight, seemingly so different—are each other’s closest evolutionary cousins? I’m crazy about penguins and hoping to spot some new species in Patagonia this year.
Melissa Stewart – Oh wow, my list is so, so, SO long. The world is bursting with all kinds of wonderful features and critters.
One feature that I had the pleasure of learning about for an upcoming book is Monument Rocks in Kansas. These white, rocky structures, made of zillions of fossilized microscopic sea creatures, rise above the plains in a truly spectacular way. It’s amazing what wind and water can do over millions of years.
Kate Hannigan – Our national parks! These are our playgrounds, and they need our love and protection if they’re to be around for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.
Sarah Albee - Given my current obsession with dinosaurs, I’ll go with something from the dinosaur world!
© Nora Nickum, 2025.
Nora Nickum – I am currently obsessed with little marine animals called garden eels, which are native to tropical Indo-Pacific waters, after seeing them in the Seattle Aquarium's brand-new Ocean Pavilion. They are adorable and full of personality, even though they're stuck with their bodies partly buried in the sand. I could watch them for hours, and would love to learn more about them.
NOW, let me take a moment to introduce you to these amazing STEAM books!
On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas by Elizabeth Shreeve, illustrated by Ray Troll (Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch 2/25/2025) – Lyrical text pares with the phenomenally stunning illustrations of Ray Troll and takes the reader on an action-packed ocean adventure from rocky coastal waters to the deep, dim sea of sperm whales and aquanauts. The back matter provides insights in the ocean and a "field guide" offering wonderful STEM information for each spread of the book, making this an engaging, entertaining, and scientific look at seventy percent of our planet.
Synopsis: With rhythmic text and stunning artwork, this picture book celebrates the dynamic animals and habitats of the ocean, from shallow waters to ocean depths. Beloved Alaskan artist Ray Troll’s gorgeous scientifically accurate illustrations capture the imagination of young readers—for ages 5-9.
Dive into the dynamic habitat of the Earth’s one ocean and discover the many ways sea creatures move through their watery world, from kelp forest fish to swift hunters and long-distance travelers riding ocean currents across the globe.
Learn about over 30 species of sea life, including mammals and fish, and discover the beauty of marine ecosystems that comprise our one, interconnected ocean.
Meet the Mini-Mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Brian Lies (Beach Lane/ Simon & Schuster 3/4/2025) – Using playful language and the fun format of an exhibit at a natural museum, this book explores the ten smallest mammals in the world. They are each highlighted within a shadowbox-like frame, bearing the tag "Actual Size," while sidebar information of their size, habits, and remarkable abilities or features and a "tiny tidbit" of fun fact offers bite-sized information on these mini-mammals. As the tuxedo-bedecked ferret searches for the "mini-est mammal of them all," levity is provided in full page spreads as the ferret tries to corral the "mischievous munchkins" who try to roam the museum. A fun map and individual note cards complete this really cool STEM look at some really curious small animals.
Synopsis: Meet some of the world’s very smallest mini-mammals in this “interesting and engaging” (School Library Journal, starred review) picture book with actual-size illustrations from Sibert Honoree Melissa Stewart and Caldecott Honoree Brian Lies.
Big mammals like elephants, hippos, and giraffes get a lot of press, but what about the little guys? From pint-sized flying squirrels to itty bitty chipmunks and teeny tiny mouse lemurs, learn all about the mini-est mammals from around the world, depicted at their real-life size.
Rachel Carson’s Wonder-filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environment Movement by Kate Hannigan, illustrated by Katie Hickey (Astra/Calkins Creek 3/11/2025) – A wonderful biography exploring Rachel Carson's intimate connection and love for nature and her sense of wonder from her childhood (roaming the woods and fields outside Pittsburgh), through her training as a biologist (crossing the country to research the National Wildlife Refuge System), to her life as a conservation writer in Maine. Gorgeous illustrations and a fun refrain employing how nature enticed all five of her senses, are accompanied by snippets from her books and stories and create a captivating look at a woman who awakened a nation to the dangers of pesticides and changed the laws of our country. Back matter provides lots of additional information on Rachel Carson, environmentalism, and a call for readers to be naturalists, too.
Synopsis: This STEAM picture book biography highlights how scientist and writer Rachel Carson became the author of the groundbreaking book Silent Spring and the mother of the modern environmental movement.
Rachel Carson wasn’t always the Rachel Carson, renowned environmental activist. From her earliest years, Rachel had a passion for nature—to her, it was a fairyland, and she loved to write about her adventures and the creatures she saw. Encouraged by teachers, Rachel wanted nothing more than to study the ocean and its inhabitants. Though unable to finish her PhD due to financial constraints, Rachel found work in science and success as a nature writer.
In the course of her work, Rachel learned about the harm caused by recently developed pesticides and chemicals that made their way into the environment. Desperate to protect nature for future generations even as her health declined, she penned the famous book Silent Spring—a call to action against the threat of the deadly chemicals. The book is anything but quiet, selling more than 2 million copies and leading directly to changes like the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Clean Water Act of 1972.
Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn't by Sarah Albee, illustrated by Chris Hsu (Charlesbridge 3/11/2025) – although a very important part of our base-ten numeric system, few people likely ponder the important role of Zero. Using an engaging, conversational tone and a lightly cartoonish Zero with arms and legs, this book explores the creation of zero in multiple cultures, Europe's resistance, and long wait until the ultimate acceptance of this encapsulation of nothing. Great back matter explores Zero's name, ancient country names, a "blurry time line," and some fun notes on the art in this great STEM book on" diddly-squat."
Synopsis: How did math work before zero existed? A STEM nonfiction book that unpacks a fascinating history of a number we can’t imagine our current world without.
From place value to being created and destroyed before being created again, zero has had quite a journey. Respected children’s author and consummate researcher Sarah Albee lays out the history of zero alongside the complications that initially hampered its development, including Western imperialism.
A riveting nonfiction kids book with a playful feel, Zero! unravels a complicated history in tremendous detail.
This Book Bubbles Over: From the Ocean to Mars and Everywhere in Between by Nora Nickum, illustrated by Robert Meganck – (Peachtree 3/11/2025) – Using a very succinct primary text, "Bubbles can make noise...or create quiet," and more in depth secondary text which expands on the specific aspects or new discoveries of a bubble (such as a sound dampening ocean bubble net or means of delivering medicine), this fascinating STEM book explores many known and new aspects of bubbles on earth and in space. The back matter expands this engaging and fun look at bubbles into the English language and more scientific depth.
Synopsis: This book really pops, full as it is of fascinating bubbles—useful and entertaining, noisy and silencing, lifesaving and dangerous, microscopic and bigger than a sports stadium.
What is a bubble? A puff of air, a swirl of gas, temporarily trapped in something else. Perhaps just moments away from popping and disappearing forever.
A bubble might look flimsy and insubstantial. But there’s more to it than that.
Delve into bubbles in this follow-up from the team behind This Book Is Full of Holes. Filled with fascinating and unusual examples from diverse STEM fields—including physics, biology, geology, food science, and medicine—this book bubbles over with fun facts about our world.
Back matter includes an author's note about the research process, language arts connections, and information about how surface tension makes fun soap bubbles possible.
Thank you all for giving us a little peek into yourselves and your books. Wishing you all enormous success.
To learn more about these writers, or to contact them:
Elizabeth Shreeve – On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch 2/25/2025) –
Website: https://elizabethshreeve.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ShreeveBooks/
LinkTree: https://tr.ee/7FPr9kF3jw
Melissa Stewart – Meet the Mini-mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum (Beach Lane/ Simon & Schuster 3/4/2025) –
Website: https://www.melissa-stewart.com/
Kate Hannigan – Rachel Carson’s Wonder-filled World: How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover Changed the Environment Movement (Astra/Calkins Creek 3/11/2025) –
Website: https://www.katehannigan.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katehanniganbooks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kate.hannigan.5
Sarah Albee - Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn't (Charlesbridge 3/11/2025) –
Website: www.sarahalbeebooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.albee
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahjalbee/
Nora Nickum – This Book Bubbles Over: From the Ocean to Mars and Everywhere in Between (Peachtree 3/11/2025) –
Website: https://www.noranickum.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noranickumbooks
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