Fuel Your Inner Ms. Frizzle with These Inquisitive Literary Heroines

A wondrous debut from an extraordinary new voice in nonfiction, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and—possibly—even murder.

David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—which sent more than a thousand of his discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered.

Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world.

When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool—a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet.

Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist reads like a fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.

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A heart-swelling debut for fans of The Silver Linings Playbook and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Sometimes life isn’t as simple as heroes and villains.

For Zelda, a twenty-one-year-old Viking enthusiast who lives with her older brother, Gert, life is best lived with some basic rules:

1. A smile means “thank you for doing something small that I liked.”
2. Fist bumps and dabs = respect.
3. Strange people are not appreciated in her home.
4. Tomatoes must go in the middle of the sandwich and not get the bread wet.
5. Sometimes the most important things don’t fit on lists.

But when Zelda finds out that Gert has resorted to some questionable—and dangerous—methods to make enough money to keep them afloat, Zelda decides to launch her own quest. Her mission: to be legendary. It isn’t long before Zelda finds herself in a battle that tests the reach of her heroism, her love for her brother, and the depth of her Viking strength.

When We Were Vikings is an uplifting debut about an unlikely heroine whose journey will leave you wanting to embark on a quest of your own, because after all...

We are all legends of our own making.

As a citizen scientist and educator, Ms. Frizzle’s mission has always been about making science accessible. Hope Jahren’s memoir, Lab Girl, does just that by giving us an inside look into how she came to science, and the many adventures she has had as she’s studied trees, plants, and all manner of greenery. Jahren had always been fascinated by science, playing in her father’s classroom lab when she was a kid. From there, all it took was getting her Ph.D. and she was out exploring with her lab partner/best friend, Bill. The book provides a different perspective on science than The Magic School Bus—rather than presenting and exploring what is known, Jahren chronicles what it’s like to be making breakthrough discoveries. The thrills and disappointments, the chase of getting specimens, the hard work that goes into pushing the horizons of human knowledge. I can definitely imagine Ms. Frizzle recommending this exhilarating book to students looking to make science their life’s work.

This #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “spine-chilling thriller that blurs the lines of fact and fiction” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author) The Elizas weaves a compelling novel that follows a young woman as she explores how much our genetics influence our future.

Summer Davis’s deep love for science is the only thing that helps her get through her turbulent journey from adolescent to adulthood. Her mother has abandoned her family, her father’s mental illness has overwhelmed him, and her older brother fluctuates between sudden rage and unpredictable tenderness. Summer can’t help but question the role of genetics in her life and if she is destined to continue her family’s legacy of mental instability.

But when she decides to put off a promising science career to take care of her great-aunt Stella—the bedrock of the family and bastion of folksy wisdom, irreverent insight, and Sinatra memorabilia in a less-than-scenic part of the Pennsylvanian countryside—she begins to learn that maybe her DNA doesn’t have to define her and that her future belongs to her alone.

From the backwoods of Pennsylvania to the brownstones of Brooklyn Heights, The Visibles investigates the secrets of the past, and the hidden corners of our own hearts, to find out whether real happiness is a gift or a choice.

What’s better than one amazing science woman? A whole squad of amazing STEM women! In an alternate version of history, a meteorite destroys the East Coast of the United States in the 1950s, spurring the space race. Pilot and mathematician Elma York joins the International Aerospace Coalition in order to get humanity to the stars, but all the efforts are focused on getting men into space, not women. With that, Elma’s mission pivots to the goal of becoming the first woman to leave the stratosphere, with the help of the amazing women she works with. The Calculating Stars often feels like a historical record, written to make it seem like you’re actually reading the record of the first woman to make it to space. And although it tells an alternate reality, it also grounds itself in our reality, focusing on the systemic issues that limited the movements of women, BIPOC, and others, and never relies on unnecessary drama to create a compelling and empowering story.