2020 Elementary Summer Reading STEAM Fun

"When the Invention Hunters, a group of globe-trotting invention collectors, visit a construction site in their flying museum, a boy helps them by explaining how simple machines like levers, pulleys, and cranks work"--

"When a family spends a day at the beach, the children investigate various footprints to see what type of creatures live along the shoreline. Rhyming text turns a sandy beach into an outdoor classroom. The tracks and habits of local wildlife, including hopping sandpipers, scuttling crabs, and burrowing turtles, are identified and explained for young ecology detectives. Even Daddy's feet make an appearance! And at day's end, it's time for tired feet...

Nikki Tesla is a genius, so mostly she finds school boring, and amuses herself by inventing things, like her mysterious missing father; trouble is most of her inventions have serious, lethal potential (like the death ray, which just blew a hole in her floor); so she and her ferret are hustled off to the special Genius Academy with classmates who are equally exceptional, although she still worries about fitting in--but when her death ray disappears...

"Codes can carry big secrets! Throughout history, lots of good guys and lots of bad guys have used codes to keep their messages under wraps. This fun and flippable nonfiction features stories of hidden treasures, war-time maneuverings, and contemporary hacking as well as explaining the mechanics behind the codes in accessible and kid friendly forms. Sidebars call out activities that invite the reader to try their own hand at cracking and crafting...

Jack and Annie travel 500 years back in time to Florence, Italy, and spend a day helping Leonardo da Vinci in the hope of learning another secret of happiness. Jack and Annie are on a mission to save Merlin from his sorrows! The brother-and-sister team travel back in the magic tree house to the period known as the Renaissance. This time, Jack and Annie will need more than a research book and a magic wand. They'll need help from one of the greatest...

"This STEM-based picture book follows the origin of a hurricane, from a little cloud to a life-threatening storm."-- Follow our little cloud on an adventure through the sky and learn the science behind how it transforms from a simple cumulus cloud to a full-blown hurricane. Beautifully detailed illustrations from award-winning artist Julie McLaughlin integrate science with storytelling. Children will enjoy finding new gems of information even after...

Planet Earth: Finding Balance on the Blue Marble with Environmental Science Activities for Kids introduces middle grade readers to all the parts of the natural world, including the oceans, the atmosphere, the earth, and everything in between. In this book, kids master ecology basics, such as the food web and animal habitats, while also learning about environmental issues such as wind and solar power, endangered species, climate change, and more. Stories...

Ten-year-old Harold, the adopted son of a food inventor, discovers that his father's latest invention, soda pop that produces the world's longest burps, also generates furry creatures known as Fizzies.

When Kristoff and the ice harvesters challenge Oaken and his new invention to a friendly contest, Oaken, Elsa, and Anna becomes embroil in a mystery involving a missing ice harvesting machine.