Books to Inspire & Support Learning Adventures

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Constructionism, Tinkering, and EdTech

• Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom — by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary S. Stager
• Twenty Things to Do with a Computer: Forward 50 — edited by Gary Stager
• The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School In The Age Of The Computer — by Seymour Papert
• Being Digital — by Nicholas Negroponte
• The Invent to Learn Guide to the micro:bit — by Pauline Maas and Peter Heldens
• Scrappy Circuits — by Michael Carroll
• The Tinkering Workshop: Explore, Invent & Build with Everyday Materials — by Ryan Jenkins

Mathematics and Mathematical Thinking

• Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language — by Christopher Danielson
• Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality — by Ben Orlin
• Math Games with Bad Drawings: 75 ¼ Simple, Challenging, Go‑Anywhere Games―And Why They Matter — by Ben Orlin
• How Big is the Moon? Whole Maths in Action — by Dave Baker and Cheryl Semple
• The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age — by Conrad Wolfram
• Data Minds: How Today’s Teachers Can Prepare Students for Tomorrow’s World — by Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams
• Math-Ish: A Groundbreaking Guide to Finding Joy and Understanding in Mathematics — by Jo Boaler
• The Mathematical Tourist: Snapshots of Modern Mathematics — by Ivars Peterson

Loose Parts and Play-Based Learning

• Loose Parts Alive: Inspiring Child‑Led Nature Explorations — by Carla Gull and Laura Wilhelm
• Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children (book 1) — by Miriam Beloglovsky and Lisa Daly
• Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play with Infants and Toddlers — by Miriam Beloglovsky and Lisa Daly
• Loose Parts 3: Inspiring Culturally Sustainable Environments — by Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky
• Loose Parts 4: Inspiring 21st‑Century Learning — by Miriam Beloglovsky and Lisa Daly
• Loose Parts in Action: The Essential How‑To Guide — by Lisa Daly
• Loose Parts for Children with Diverse Abilities — by Miriam Beloglovsky and Debbie LeeKeenan

Reggio Emilia and Early Childhood Education

• Visible Learners: Promoting Reggio‑Inspired Approaches in All Schools — by Mara Krechevsky, Ben Mardell, Melissa Rivard, and Daniel Wilson
• Curated Moments: Reggio‑Inspired Classrooms for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos — by Jennifer Kesselring, Ashley Stewart, Whitney Dickinson, and Jerry Bates
• In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia — by Carla Rinaldi
• The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation — edited by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, and George Forman
• In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia — edited by Lella Gandini, Lynn Hill, Louise Cadwell, and Charles Schwall
• Beautiful Stuff!: Learning with Found Materials — by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella Gandini
• Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Teachers and Children from North America — edited by Lella Gandini, Susan Etheredge, and Lynn Hill
• Choice Time: How to Deepen Learning Through Inquiry and Play, PreK‑2 — by Renee Dinnerstein

Literacy & Education Theory

• Children Want to Write: Donald Graves and the Revolution in Children’s Writing — by Donald H. Graves
• A Fresh Look at Writing — by Donald H. Graves
• Wally’s Stories: Conversations in the Kindergarten — by Vivian Gussin Paley
• You Can’t Say You Can’t Play — by Vivian Gussin Paley
• In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an era of Testing and Standardization — by Deborah Meier
• The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem — by Deborah Meier
• “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning — by Eleanor Duckworth
• Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project Approach (3rd Edition) — by Lilian G. Katz and Sylvia C. Chard
• Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education — by David Perkins
• The Herb Kohl Reader: Awakening the Heart of Teaching — by Herbert Kohl
• The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” by Alfie Kohn
• Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School — by Theodore R. Sizer
• Horace’s School: Redesigning the American High School — by Theodore R. Sizer
• Horace’s Hope: What Works for the American High School — by Theodore R. Sizer
• The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone’s Business — by Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle
• The Essential Howard Gardner on Education — by Howard Gardner
• And What Do You Mean by Learning? — by Seymour Sarason
• The Book of Learning and Forgetting — by Frank Smith

Media, Screenwriting, and Podcasting

• Radio: An Illustrated Guide — by Ira Glass and Jessica Abel
• Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting — by Syd Field
• The Screenwriter’s Workbook — by Syd Field
• NPR’s Podcast Start Up Guide: Create, Launch, and Grow a Podcast on Any Budget — by Glen Weldon

Activism and Innovation

• Selling the Dream — by Guy Kawasaki
• Rules for Revolutionaries — by Guy Kawasaki

Human Geography and Global Culture

• Material World: A Global Family Portrait — by Peter Menzel
• Women in the Material World — by Faith D’Aluisio and Peter Menzel
• What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets — by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio
• Hungry Planet: What the World Eats — by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio
• Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home‑Made Nations — by John Ryan, George Dunford, and Simon Sellars
• Micronations: Invent Your Own Country and Culture with 25 Projects (Build It Yourself) — by Kathy Ceceri

Data, Visualization, and Codebreaking

• W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America — by The W.E.B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Adrift: America in 100 Charts — by Scott Galloway
• Data Feminism — by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein
• Dear Data: A Friendship in 52 Weeks of Postcards — by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec
• The Code Book: The Secrets Behind Codebreaking — by Simon Singh
• The Cryptoclub: Using Mathematics to Make and Break Secret Codes — by Janet Beissinger and Vera Pless
• Code Cracking for Kids: Secret Communications Throughout History, with 21 Codes and Ciphers — by Jean Daigneau
• Secret Code Breaking Puzzles for Kids — by Gareth Moore
• The Junior Code Breaker Book: 50 Intriguing Code Puzzles to Crack — by Elizabeth Tweedale
• Spies, Code Breakers, and Secret Agents: A World War II Book for Kids — by Carole P. Roman

Grammar of Fantasy

• The Grammar of Fantasy: An Introduction to the Art of Inventing Stories — by Gianni Rodari
• Telling Stories Wrong — by Gianni Rodari
• The Book of Whys — by Gianni Rodari
• Codex Seraphinianus — by Luigi Serafini

Computers, Technology, and Society

• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution — by Steven Levy
• The Pattern on the Stone (Science Masters) — by W. Daniel Hillis
• Adventures of a Computational Explorer — by Stephen Wolfram
• Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion — by Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis
• When Things Start to Think — by Neil Gershenfeld
• Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop–from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication — by Neil Gershenfeld
• The Society of Mind — by Marvin Minsky
• The Second Self, Twentieth Anniversary Edition: Computers and the Human Spirit — by Sherry Turkle