“Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy.” That’s the mantra of Joanna Cole’s beloved series, The Magic School Bus. It’s no wonder that STEM-loving kids are obsessed with the adventures of Ms. Frizzle and her class.
But what about when kids run out of new volumes? If you have a voracious reader, you know that there’s no single author prolific enough to keep them in books. The good news is that there are plenty of other series out there that will satisfy your young reader’s love of science and craving for imaginative storytelling.
Who Would Win?
It’s easy to get a little envious of kids today. Science is already pretty engaging, but the current generation’s science lessons come with a side of adventure, imagination, and some serious FUN.
Who Would Win? is a perfect example of how STEM learning has taken a turn for the amazing. Instead of just learning various facts about animals, kids can absorb knowledge while enjoying action-packed narratives pitting the fiercest creatures in the world (and sometimes, in prehistory) against each other.
Vote for your favorite animals and find out who would win in a battle between a T-rex and a velociraptor, a killer whale and a great white shark, a lion and a tiger, and much more.
Plus: Encourage a love of reading with help from our guide, which includes book recommendations by interest, tips for getting your child to read for fun, and much more.
What If You Had…?
And speaking of T-rex, what if you had T-rex teeth — or an animal tail, eyes, or feet? The What If You Had…? series helps readers imagine exactly what it would be like to have the various features of their favorite animals.
Plus, kids will get plenty of animal biology facts to ponder while they’re exercising their imaginations. For example, did you know that a chameleon’s eyes can look in different directions, while a squid’s eyes glow in the dark? Now you do!
Big and Small Animals
If your little readers can’t get enough of animal facts, they’ll love the Raise a Reader Set: Big and Small Animals. Starting with the smallest animals and moving up to the very biggest, this series includes just about everything kids might want to know about amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles.
Each volume is beautifully illustrated with full-color photos and comes packed with facts about each animal’s body, diet, and habitat. Best of all, the text is short, engaging, and easy for kids to read – so they can find out for themselves why some animals are so teeny while others are so huge.
I Am Biographies
Got a history buff in the family? They’ll love the I Am series of biographies. Starting with Sacagawea and including famous figures from Albert Einstein and Harriet Tubman to Martin Luther King Jr. and Roberto Clemente, these stories are a must-read for anyone who loves learning about the heroes that shaped our past and future.
The Teacher From the Black Lagoon
First-day of school jitters can make even the most confident kids a little nervous. But what if going to school meant dealing with teachers who were actual monsters?
The Teacher From the Black Lagoon series explores this hilarious alternate reality. Hubie’s teacher is literally a monster — a green one who sometimes eats or shrinks kids. But at the end of the day, a safe happy ending awaits as it’s revealed that Mrs. Green isn’t quite as monstrous as Hubie feared.
Ready to add to your kids’ to-be-read pile? Search The Scholastic Store by grade and age, format and subject, or series and character.
