I started writing and illustrating when I was pregnant with my firstborn in the fall of 2018. Influenced by my work in tech and graduate studies, I wanted to ensure my daughter’s newborn library would include a diversity of non-STEM and STEM books (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
(full disclaimer: the links to the books below are paid links to all the books I personally have purchased)
My top 5 favorite (non-STEM) books are the following:
- Here We Are, Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers
- Love you Forever by Robert Munsch
- Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
- I Love Mommy by Laura Gates Galvin
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Estelle Corke
I got them all. STEM books were next.
The following are my daughters’ top STEM books:
- Baby Loves Gravity by Ruth Spiro
- Baby Loves Thermodynamics by Ruth Spiro
- Rocket Science by Alex Fabrizio
- Baby University Collection by Chris Ferrie
I got them all. But something was still missing :-/
I wasn’t finding emerging STEM books. I didn’t find any books that talked about up-and-coming STEM topics I knew were critical for our future generations. To me, this was a huge gap. In my everyday life, I lived and breathed the future as a long-term strategic planner in a tech company and as a Patent 101 teacher (not an attorney, just an inventor/teacher). Where was artificial intelligence, machine learning, self-driving cars, interplanetary travel?
This bothered me so much I decided to do something about it.
Dr. Dhoot’s Tinker Toddlers® was founded in 2018 in sunny California to inspire and to teach basics to the youngest learners (and adults) about emerging STEM topics. Machine Learning for Kids and Artificial Intelligence for Kids were our flagship books, and the first in the world to talk about these topics for such a young age.
If you are thinking about writing/illustrating your own children’s books, I would recommend brainstorming an area where you could carve out your own niche (where you are especially suited to make a contribution). Think about your special skill set, your interests, where you spend much of your time, or a topic you know more about than others. Or, if there is simply a story you want to tell. Today, there are children’s books that range all the way from life lessons Ray Dalio’s Principles of Success to mindfulness books like Breathe like a Bear by Kira Willey. There are many new genres that didn’t exist 10 years ago, and still room for growth.
