This page focuses on illustrated non-fiction books and biographies which would be great choice to support the Science curriculum for 9 to 13 year olds. These non-fiction books would also be fantastic to tempt readers and foster a love of reading for pleasure for curious young minds. Many of the books would work well in both year 5/6 and KS3.
As an independent children’s bookseller specialising in supporting school staff and primary schools for 6+ years, I have had the huge pleasure of of helping a number of primary schools to build up their collections of high quality non-fiction books to support the curriculum and reading for pleasure. Through bookish Twitter I have a number of friends who work in year 5 and year 6 in primary and others that work secondary schools, many of these illustrated non-fiction books come highly recommended by them and have been tried and tested in the classroom.
There is lots of potential to use books like these to support the teaching of KS3 Science and at the same time encourage reading for pleasure and support the development of wider literacy skills.
Beautiful and informatative non-fiction to support Science curriculum
If you looking to to grow your collection of illustrated non-fiction books that will support the Science curriculum in year 5/6 or year 7/8 then start here.
Children’s and young adult non-fiction has come along way in the past 8+ years. The quality of illustrations and information is outstanding. If you had to choose only one book then that would be That’s Life, written by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Lauren Humphrey, because it covers the entire kingdom of life and has at the end of each section comic strips of the people behind different scientific discoveries. But, please do check out the other books too.
Books to Discover about Scientists and Engineers
There are many beautiful illustrated biographies of scientists, a sample of which are shown here. There are also several books that show the different sorts of things Scientists do, these include: The Who, What Why of Zoology and Scientist in the Galapagos. All of these books will help to broaden 9 to 13 year olds understanding of where studying Science could take them. If you are asking students to research scientists, many of these books are more accessible and informative than information students are likely to find for themselves in an internet search.
Please note:
Darwins Super Pooping Spectacular is the only one of the books aimed at a younger audience (6+ years), but because of the illustrated way it introduces you the process of scientific enquiry it has plenty of potential with older children too.