海角大神

Children are born curious about the world, and there are few better ways to stoke their curiosity than with a good book.

Science books in particular have a way of opening new vistas, not just with the topics they reveal, but also in the ways they teach the scientific method. Over the past four centuries, that creative yet logical mode of thought has radically transformed every aspect of human existence.

OK, but which books to get? For this list, we鈥檝e selected our favorite books published in the past three years for each age range. We aimed for books that include not just facts about the natural world but also stories that convey how scientists think about it.聽

Infant

Canadian physicist Chris Ferrie has written a series of two dozen or so Baby University board books with tongue-in-cheek distillations of complex scientific topics into simple words and pictures. 鈥淩ocket Science for Babies鈥� covers the basics of aerodynamic lift and Newton鈥檚 third law. 鈥淕eneral Relativity for Babies鈥� discusses the relationship between mass and space-time. And 鈥淨uantum Physics for Babies鈥� explains the quantum discontinuity. Your baby almost certainly won鈥檛 learn any science from these books, but if you鈥檝e never taken a college-level physics class, you probably will.

Pre-K to kindergarten聽

How does an animal go from being wild to being domesticated? A breeding experiment in Siberia, now in its sixth decade, aims to answer this question by transforming wild silver foxes into domestic canines. Written by University of Louisville biologist Lee Dugatkin and Russian geneticist Lyudmila Trut, the experiment鈥檚 lead researcher, 鈥淧ushinka the Barking Fox: A True Story of Unexpected Friendship鈥� presents young children with a gentler view of evolution, one that proceeds not through struggle and competition, but through affection and cooperation. 鈥淟ove,鈥� write the authors, 鈥渃hanges us.鈥�

First to second grade

The relentlessly inquisitive Ada Marie Twist, the star of the 2016 children鈥檚 book 鈥淎da Twist, Scientist,鈥� is back with a roster of science experiments to conduct at home. With 鈥淎da Twist鈥檚 Big Project Book for Stellar Scientists鈥� by Andrea Beaty, readers can learn why the moon seems to change shape, how plants decompose, and what steps we can take to limit greenhouse gas emissions. More importantly, readers will learn how scientists think, and about the difference between facts and feelings.聽

Second to third grade

Rocketry enthusiasts who are too young for Margot Lee Shetterly鈥檚 book 鈥淗idden Figures,鈥� or the 2016 movie of the same name, should check out 鈥淐ounting on Katherine,鈥� Helaine Becker鈥檚 biography of Katherine Johnson, the African American mathematician whose calculations proved essential to the success of NASA鈥檚 Mercury and Apollo missions. Illustrated by Dow Phumiruk, 鈥淐ounting on Katherine鈥� will take you from the early 1920s, showing Katherine as a young prodigy counting the steps up to church, to the 1970s, when her hurried calculations of orbital trajectories helped save the crew of Apollo 13.

Fourth to sixth grade

Dog lovers, or really anyone interested in how animals think, will enjoy 鈥淚nside of a Dog 鈥� Young Readers Edition鈥� by Barnard psychologist Alexandra Horowitz. This 2016 adaptation of Horowitz鈥檚 2009 bestseller, rewritten in simple yet lively prose for kids ages 8-12, examines the canine umwelt 鈥� the world as experienced 鈥渇rom the dog鈥檚 point of nose.鈥�

Middle school

Anyone studying the life sciences is best advised to begin with Charles Darwin. But young readers might face some challenges when reading the British naturalist for the first time. One, of course, is the casual racism and sexism typical of Victorian writers. The other is that Darwin uses lots of examples to make his case for evolution by way of mutation and natural selection. Adapted by Rebecca Stefoff and lavishly illustrated, 鈥淥n the Origin of Species: Young Readers Edition鈥� avoids these pitfalls, offering a tween-friendly version of Darwin that doesn鈥檛 get bogged down in detail yet is still more or less straight from the horse鈥檚 mouth (or finch鈥檚 beak).

High school

Randall Munroe鈥檚 minimalist 2005 web comic 鈥渪kcd鈥� has gained a cult following for its unapologetically nerdy humor. In 鈥淗ow To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems,鈥� he takes ordinary problems 鈥� how to move, how to fill a swimming pool, how to make friends 鈥� and uses them to create the most extreme scenarios. For instance, Munroe calculates that you could transport your entire house using two Boeing 787 engines, although he cautions that you鈥檇 probably want to add a third or a fourth for stability. 鈥淗ow To鈥� also includes advice from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who flew two NASA missions, on how to land the space shuttle in an emergency, and from Serena Williams on how to take down a drone with a tennis ball.