Books by Jennifer Swanson

Outdoor School: Rock, Fossil, and Shell Hunting: The Definitive Interactive Nature Guide

by Jennifer Swanson

Rewild your life! With metal corners and 448 full-color, highly illustrated pages, OUTDOOR SCHOOL: ROCK, FOSSIL, AND SHELL HUNTING is an indispensable tool for young explorers and rock collectors.

Make every day an adventure with the included:
- Immersive activities to get you exploring
- Write-in sections to journal about experiences
- Next-level adventures to challenge even seasoned nature lovers

No experience is required―only curiosity and courage. This interactive field guide to rocks, fossils & shells includes:
- Digging, chiseling, hammering, and wading for rocks and minerals
- Identifying rocks & minerals by location, texture, color, shape, and size
- Determining between rocks, geodes, and space rocks
- Finding fossils and setting up a dig site
- Searching and snorkeling for shells
- Storing and displaying your collection
And so much more!

Workman Publishing Company - To Ace Chemistry in One Big Fat Notebook

by Workman Publishing, Jennifer Swanson

Chemistry? No problem!

This Big Fat Notebook covers everything you need to know during a year of high school chemistry class, breaking down one big bad subject into accessible units. Learn to study better and get better grades using mnemonic devices, definitions, diagrams, educational doodles, and quizzes to recap it all.

Including: Atoms, elements, compounds and mixtures The periodic table Quantum theory Bonding The mole Chemical reactions and calculations Gas laws Solubility pH scale Titrations Le Chatelier's principle ...and much more!

Absolute Expert: Dolphins

by Jennifer Swanson

Kids who have a laser focus on dolphins will learn everything they've ever wanted to know about them in an eye-catching, page-turning book for aspiring experts, featuring exclusive content from a National Geographic explorer currently in the field.

Hey, dolphin fin-atics! Get ready to dive into the world of your favorite fabulous marine mammals in this action-packed book chock-full of awesome facts, photos, and fun! Join National Geographic explorer and dolphin expert Justine Jackson-Ricketts to get the latest, most up-to-date dolphin intel straight from the field, plus fun facts, in-depth info, and awesome trivia about every kind of dolphin under the sun (and beneath the waves). It's the ultimate book to help YOU become an absolute expert on one of your favorite topics.

The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide to Inventing the World

by Jennifer Swanson, Dylan Thuras

The team behind the bestselling Atlas Obscura presents a kids’ illustrated STEM-oriented exploration of the world’s most interesting technologies, inventions, and scientific discoveries.

Following up on the New York Times bestselling Atlas Obscura Explorer's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid, with more than 200,000 copies in print, here is a globe-spanning history of invention like no other. This illustrated and STEM-oriented exploration of the planet’s 94 most interesting inventions and scientific discoveries sends middle-grade readers on an unforgettable trip around the planet and across time.

Each spread focuses on a world-changing technology and how it led to or influenced the tech or discovery on the next page. Starting with the very first invention, fire, readers will spelunk the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa for evidence of humankind’s earliest control of flames, then learn how fire is necessary to create another essential tech: glass, including the modern-day glass bridge in Zhangjiajie, China, that offers a crystal-clear (and terrifying!) view of the chasm 1,300 feet below.

As you gaze at comets through telescopes, create unbreakable codes, zap space garbage with lasers, and break supersonic records in the world’s fastest car, gorgeously illustrated scenes will transport readers across continents and centuries into a world of wonder and discovery.

Spies, Lies, and Disguise: The Daring Tricks and Deeds that Won World War II

by Jennifer Swanson

In the late 1930s, times were desperate. The world found itself at war again, less than twenty years after the first World War had ended. No one could quite believe it. And no one wanted it. The leaders of every country involved were left with no choice. They had to try to end the war as fast as possible, using whatever means they could.
That meant coming up with secret operations meant to deceive, deflect, and confuse their enemies. Poison the cattle that the Germans eat? Deliberately float a corpse dressed up as a spy across the water to have it wash up on Germany's shore? Create a unit of top secret commandos with a license to kill? These were all real tactics attempted with the ultimate goal of defeating Hitler. In this off-center look at history, readers will be captivated by the classified and covert efforts made by each side as they tried to gain the upper hand and win the war. Restricted access is lifted to give the reader a peek into the top secret operations of the daring men and women who fought the war under a cloak of secrecy.

Astronaut-Aquanaut: How Space Science and Sea Science Interact

by Jennifer Swanson

Journey from the deepest trenches in the oceans to the farthest humans have ventured into space and learn what it takes to explore the extremes. You might just be surprised by how similar the domains of ASTRONAUTS and AQUANAUTS really are.

Space and the ocean. If you don't think they go together, think again! Both deep-sea and space explorers have to worry about pressure, temperature, climate, and most importantly, how to survive in a remote and hostile environment. Join us on an amazing journey as we go up in space with astronauts and dive deep down in the ocean with aquanauts to explore the far-off places of our planet and the solar system.

With a strong tie into STEM topics--such as making connections, making comparisons, and recognizing patterns across content areas--readers will discover the amazing science and incredible innovations that allow humans (and sometimes only machines) to survive in these harsh environments.

Everything Robotics All the Robotic Photos, Facts, and Fun!

by Jennifer Swanson

They fix spacecraft, dance, tell jokes, and even clean your carpet! From the tiniest robo-bees to gigantic factory machines, robotics is all around you. This technology isn't just for science-fiction anymore -- it's real and more relevant than ever. With stunning visuals and energetic, impactful design, readers won't stop until they've learned everything there is to know about robotics.

3 Weeks in the Rainforest A Rapid Inventory in the Amazon

by Jennifer Swanson

A women-led team of scientists protect the Amazon rainforest from destruction as readers get a firsthand account of real-life fieldwork in action.

A compelling, nonfiction, photo-illustrated STEM read for 8-12-year-olds who aspire to be future scientists, environmentalists, and conservationists!

Over 22 years, a team of scientists from the Field Museum in Chicago has helped conserve 28.9 million acres of the Amazon rainforest. Follow the team as they race to gather data over three precious weeks in the field.

During rapid inventory, information is gathered in two ways:

• Biologists trek through mud and rain and count every animal and plant they see, recording everything that flies, swims, crawls, slithers, or walks. They then look at key plant and animal groups to assess the health of the ecosystem.

• Social scientists visit villages, speaking with local people about their desires and goals for the land, as each community has developed its own way of taking care of its environment.

The team then makes a compelling, evidence-based case for conservation.

Developed in partnership with the Field Museum, this action-packed book focuses on Rapid Inventory 30, which is conducted in Colombia with the help of local and Indigenous scientists and community members.

Photographs from the scientists themselves give readers a glimpse into real-life fieldwork in the Amazon that will captivate STEM readers and the next generation of scientists.

Up Periscope! How Engineer Raye Montague Revolutionized Shipbuilding

by Jennifer Swanson

Discover the hidden figure who created the first comprehensive computer program to design ships for the US Navy.



Girls like Raye Montague weren't supposed to like math or science, or go to engineering school. But tenacious Raye had a plan, one that eventually took her all the way to the US Navy. There, she was assigned an impossible task: to come up with a single computer program that could design every part of a ship. It had never been done before--but Raye's groundbreaking program revolutionized the way ships and submarines were built, and set her on a path to become a pioneering figure in naval engineering and the navy's first female program manager of ships.



Award-winning author Jennifer Swanson and acclaimed illustrator Veronica Miller Jamison celebrate a self-made engineer who worked around anyone and anything that stood in her way in this illuminating biography about never giving up on your dreams.