12 Women in Science

Twelve true stories of the brilliant women who changed science forever-told in full, not squeezed onto a single fact-file page.

Most collections give each heroine one page and a dozen dates. 12 Women in Science does something different: it tells the whole story-a curious childhood, a door slammed shut, the years of stubborn work, and the breakthrough that reshaped our world-in richly illustrated, story-driven chapters made to be read aloud and remembered. Young readers don't just memorize names. They fall in love with science.

Meet all twelve pioneers:

Ada Lovelace, who wrote the world's first computer program a century before computers existed • Marie Curie, who discovered radium and polonium and won Nobel Prizes in two different sciences • Jane Goodall, who lived among wild chimpanzees and proved they make tools • Mae Jemison, the doctor-astronaut who became the first African American woman in space • Tu Youyou, the Nobel-winning chemist who found a malaria cure hidden in a 1,600-year-old Chinese text • Sylvia Earle, "Her Deepness," who walked the ocean floor and champions the sea • Hedy Lamarr, the Hollywood star whose secret invention paved the way for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi • Grace Hopper, "Amazing Grace," the Navy programmer who taught computers to speak English • Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician whose calculations carried John Glenn safely around the Earth • Rosalind Franklin, whose Photo 51 unlocked the structure of DNA • Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in America to earn a medical degree • Chien-Shiung Wu, the physicist whose famous experiment overturned a law of nature.

Inside this collection:

• Twelve in-depth illustrated biographies, each opening with a full-page portrait

• Every field of STEM: computing and coding, chemistry, physics, medicine, space exploration, marine biology, primatology, invention, and mathematics

• Real, documented quotes from the scientists themselves woven through every chapter

• A recommended-reading guide that turns curiosity into the next book

• Globally diverse role models from three continents-Poland, England, China, Austria, and the United States-spanning two centuries of discovery

A collective biography built for real use: written for curious readers ages 8-12 (grades 3-6) and the grown-ups reading alongside them, each chapter fits one sitting-a natural chapter-a-day read-aloud for Women's History Month, a ready-made pick for biography units and classroom reports, and a display-ready choice for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11). At home in classrooms, school libraries, homeschool shelves, and bedtime.

An ideal gift for birthdays, graduations, and holidays-because when a girl sees what these twelve women made possible, she starts to wonder what she will make possible. And that wondering is where every scientist begins.