Jeannine Atkins

"A biographical novel in verse of three different girls in three different time periods who grew up to become groundbreaking scientists"--

Three Girls Who Changed Science

Finding Wonders

"A biographical novel in verse of a half Native American, half African American female sculptor, Edmonia Lewis, working in the years right after the Civil War"--

The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis

Stone Mirrors

A fictionalized account of a real-life rivalry between two sisters who crave wealth, fame, and travel at a time when women are expected to be content with a humble home life: May and Louisa Alcott.

A Novel of May Alcott

Little Woman in Blue

Using fragments of Alcott's diary, Atkins recreates what it was like for the author of "Little Women" to spend a frightening year of family imposed sacrifice at a farm called Fruitlands. Full-color illustrations.

A Novel about Louisa May at Fruitlands

Becoming Little Women

As a child, Laura Ingalls Wilder traveled across the prairie in a covered wagon. Her daughter, Rose, thought those stories might make a good book, and the two created the beloved Little House series. Sara Breedlove, the daughter of former slaves, wanted everything to be different for her own daughter, A'Lelia. Together they built a million-dollar beauty empire for women of color. Marie Curie became the first person in history to win two Nobel prizes in science. Inspired by her mother, Irène too became a scientist and Nobel prize winner. Borrowed Names is the story of these extraordinary mothers and daughters. Borrowed Names is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters

Borrowed Names

Brief biographies of 6 woman naturalists from the 17th to 21st centuries: Maria Sibylla Merian, Anna Botsford Comstock, Frances Hamerstrom, Rachel Carson, Miriam Rothschild, and Jane Goodall.

The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists

Girls who Looked Under Rocks

Learn about seven groundbreaking women in math and science in this gorgeously written biographical novel-in-verse, a companion to the “original and memorable” (Booklist, starred review) Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science. After a childhood spent looking up at the stars, Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet and to earn a salary for scientific research. Florence Nightingale was a trailblazing nurse whose work reformed hospitals and one of the founders of the field of medical statistics. The first female electrical engineer, Hertha Marks Ayrton registered twenty-six patents for her inventions. Marie Tharp helped create the first map of the entire ocean floor, which helped scientists understand our subaquatic world and suggested how the continents shifted. A mathematical prodigy, Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories and launch windows for many NASA projects including the Apollo 11 mission. Edna Lee Paisano, a citizen of the Nez Perce Nation, was the first Native American to work full time for the Census Bureau, overseeing a large increase in American Indian and Alaskan Native representation. And Vera Rubin studied more than two hundred galaxies and found the first strong evidence for dark matter. Told in vibrant, evocative poems, this stunning novel celebrates seven remarkable women who used math as their key to explore the mysteries of the universe and grew up to do innovative work that changed the world.

Girls Who Loved Math

Grasping Mysteries

A biographical novel in verse about Lise Meitner, an Austrian Jew and physics professor in Nazi Germany who escaped to Sweden and whose work led to the discovery of nuclear fission. Includes author's note and timeline.

Lise Meitner's Call to Science

Hidden Powers

Every writer needs inspiration, whether composing fiction, poetry, or fact-based work for an audience of children or adults. Both inspiration and company, Views from a Window Seat: Thoughts on Writing and Life poses and answers questions such as: How do we decide the best way to begin a book? How do we keep up our momentum during the long middle? What are some ways to know we've reached an ending? How do we tell the truth?

Thoughts on Writing and Life

Views from a Window Seat

From the acclaimed author of Finding Wonders and Grasping Mysteries comes a gorgeously written biography in verse about the pioneering Jewish woman physicist whose scientific prowess changed the course of World War II. At the turn of the 20th century, Lise Meitner dreamed of becoming a scientist. In her time, girls were not supposed to want careers, much less ones in science. But Lise was smart—and determined. She earned a PhD in physics, then became the first woman physics professor at the University of Berlin. The work was thrilling, but Nazi Germany was a dangerous place for a Jewish woman. When the risks grew too great, Lise escaped to Sweden, where she continued the experiments that she and her laboratory partner had worked on for years. Her efforts led to the discovery of nuclear fission and altered the course of history. Only Lise’s partner, a man, received the Nobel Prize for their findings, but this moving and accessible biography shows how Lise’s legacy endures.

From critically acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins comes a “memorable, poetic tale” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about a half Native American, half African American sculptor working in the years following the Civil War. A sculptor of historical figures starts with givens but creates her own vision. Edmonia Lewis was just such a sculptor, but she never spoke or wrote much about her past, and the stories that have come down through time are often vague or contradictory. Some facts are known: Edmonia was the daughter of an Ojibwe woman and an African-Haitian man. She had the rare opportunity to study art at Oberlin, one of the first schools to admit women and people of color, but lost her place after being accused of poisoning and theft, despite being acquitted of both. She moved to Boston and eventually Italy, where she became a successful sculptor. But the historical record is very thin. The open questions about Edmonia’s life seem ideally suited to verse, a form that is compatible with mysteries. Inspired by both the facts and the gaps in history, author Jeannine Atkins imagines her way into a vision of what might have been.

Michael Dooling

An account of the finding of the first entire skeleton of an ichthyosaur, an extinct sea reptile, by a twelve-year-old English girl who went on to become a paleontologist.

Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon

Horrified by the people who have come to cut down their forest homeland, Aani amd other women from her village try to make them understand how important the trees are, amd a single act of bravery helps save the forest

Aani and the Tree Huggers

An inspiring famous women book for girls, Girls Who Looked Under Rocks also makes the perfect feminist gift for girls. Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists is for a world no longer confined by gender stereotypes, and a place where science is for girls, too! Parents and children will love this portrayal of six women who grew up playing in the dirt and went on to become award winning scientists and writers. All of these women were discouraged from pursuing careers in science, but they all persisted in their passion. If there is a pre-teen or adolescent in your life, especially a girl, take a look at this empowering, inspiring chapter book. It portrays the youths and careers of six remarkable women whose curiosity about nature fueled a passion to steadfastly overcome obstacles to careers in traditionally men-only occupations. The six-Maria Merian (b.1647), Anna Comstock (b.1854), Frances Hamerstrom (b.1907), Rachel Carson (b.1907), Miriam Rothschild (b.1908), and Jane Goodall (b.1934)—all became renowned scientists, artists and writers. A wonderful resource for young researchers and biographers, these stories can be a starting point for issues of gender, science, and the environment.

Jeannine Atkins

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