Who is a scientist? By Laura Gehl

A while ago there was an excellent book called Scientists Get Dressed, which introduced young children to the concept of diversity in the sciences, as well as a wide variety of careers. This book is along the same lines, but takes the concept even farther, showing a diverse range of scientists, explaining their field of specialization, and also giving them a personal aspect with a second picture showing some of their interests outside of their career.

Mark Lewis, a Black man, is shown playing basketball and in business-casual clothing at a whiteboard, in his job as a professor who specializes in operations research, a field combining business and mathematics. Richard Makin, a white man shown with forearm crutches, is shown working and exploring outside both for enjoyment and for his job studying insects. Michelle, an older white woman with full sleeve tattoos and dyed red hair is shown teaching an exercise class in her own life, and with sample boats for her work with the Navy, studying submarines, drones, and seawater corrosion. These are just a small sample of the diverse scientists shown. Each is profiled on the left side of the page, shown enjoying a personal hobby with the repetitive text, “Who is a scientist? This is a scientist. NAME is a PROFESSION.” On the right side of the page, there is equally brief text at the top that explains who they work for and their personal hobbies. An additional photo shows them at work and a longer paragraph gives their full name and explains more about their occupation.

The main text is simple enough to be used in a storytime, especially one focused on STEM or the community. The longer text can be used with classrooms to talk about different kinds of science. QR codes in the back can be scanned to meet the different scientists and there’s an infographic for kids to decide what kind of scientist they might want to be. You can also meet the scientists in this book trailer. There's also a teaching guide on Laura Gehl's website.

Verdict: This is a great book for preschool and early elementary classrooms, storytimes, and libraries. Use it to expand kids’ ideas of who can be a scientist and what science is as well as to encourage them to explore their own scientific interests. Recommended.

Publication note: The library bound and paperback editions should have been released on October 5th. According to Baker and Taylor, the paperback edition is marked not yet published and the library bound is on backorder, so it may have had its publication delayed, like so many other books.

ISBN: 9781728441085; Published October 5 (maybe) by Lerner; Review copy provided by publisher; Added to publisher orders for next year