Today marks Stand Up for Science 2025, part of a movement to defend science as a public good. I’m therefore highlighting three recent kids’ books, each showing a different way that LGBTQ people, characters, and themes appear in STEM-related books.
The Stand Up for Science organizers list three goals on their website—goals that will benefit all:
- End Censorship and Political Interference in Science
- Secure and Expand Scientific Funding
- Defend Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Science
Encouraging kids of all identities to consider STEM fields as careers, or simply areas of interest, clearly fits into the last goal, so it’s great to see a growing number of LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books with STEM themes. Below are three different approaches: a biography of a real LGBTQ person in a STEM field; a STEM-themed work of fiction with LGBTQ characters, and a non-fiction title about family diversity in nature (part of a broader category that also looks at gender diversity in nature).
These are just the most recent such books. For even more, filter my Database of LGBTQ Family Books by the “STEM” tag. (Note that I only include biographies that have some indication that the person was/is queer. And with all love to the amazing Sally Ride, I’ll note that she vastly dominates LGBTQ STEM biographies right now. We also need more biographies of the many other LGBTQ people who have contributed to STEM fields, both in the past and currently.)
You may also want to read my 2017 piece “Love and Science: How Science Has Helped LGBTQ Families,” and “Marching for Science and Democracy,” about when my spouse and I took our son to the 2018 March for Science, a precursor of sorts to today’s event.
Click the images or titles for full reviews!
I Am Sally Ride, by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos (Rocky Pond). This cheery picture book is one of author Brad Meltzer and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos’ series of biographies for young readers—though told through a relatable first-person perspective. While the narrative is kept relatively simple for the age group, it manages to pack a lot in. The primary focus is on her career, but her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy is noted and seen on a final page of photos and a timeline.
Families of a Feather: A Celebration of Family Diversity, by Fern Wexler, illustrated by Kelsey Buzzell (Little Bigfoot). The bird world includes many kinds of family diversity, and this warm and gentle picture book shares a number of examples with young readers, encouraging them to see reflections of their own families. Although every person and every bird’s family may look different and love each other differently, Wexler concludes, “families of a feather love together, and everyone deserves to be loved.”
Several other books have also looked at family and gender diversity in nature (Love in the Wild; It’s a Wild World; Meet My Family!, and the classic And Tango Makes Three); Families of a Feather takes a slightly different approach than the others by sticking with straightforward nonfiction (though still simple and age-appropriate), rather than embedding the facts in a fictionalized story, dialogue, or impressionistic poem. There’s a place for all of those approaches, though, depending on the reader’s age and tastes.
The Secrets of Underhill, by Kali Wallace (Quirk Books). Eleven-year-old Veronica “Nick” Sixsmith and her mother, Theodora “Theo”, are traveling arborists, tending to the groves of ironwood trees whose magic-infused wood enables much of the world’s technology in this middle grade novel. When a blight begins attacking the trees, however, Nick and Theo go back to the city of Mistwood, home of the ancestral Heart Grove and of Theo’s family, whom she left many years ago for reasons Nick doesn’t know.
The actions of the Forestry Company controlling the use of ironwood are becoming more secretive and restrictive, and some people in the city have suddenly disappeared. Nick wants to know why, even as she continues her search for the origins of the blight. She’s joined by her cousin Oliver and an Underhill youth named Lizard (who is nonbinary). As the three seek answers, however, they uncover plans that would endanger the most vulnerable citizens and create an environmental disaster that would ultimately affect all.
Lizard’s nonbinary identity is introduced without fanfare or questioning; at one point, too, Nick thinks about those who ask if she has “a father or a second mother,” indicating that either option would be valid and that LGBTQ identities as a whole are a non-issue here. Additionally, one of Nick’s aunts is chosen family.
The lessons about environmentalism, social inequalities, and the perils of corporate greed are clear but not pedantic; this is an obvious fable about how we treat our own world and the communities and people in it, but woven into a captivating tale with strong worldbuilding. Wallace has carefully constructed a system of trees whose powers and effects are the heart of the world’s trade and technology, and her descriptions of flora and geography are lush and evocative. Despite being a fantasy, the book talks about observation, use of data, and drawing conclusions in ways that should delight STEM-minded readers (and perhaps create new ones).