There are so many books that will help your children learn about the universe around them and it is hard to even know where to begin! Here is a list of books and videos about space from some of our favorite series along with some other highly recommended books! In each section, they are roughly ordered from preschool to older learners. At the end, I include a hands on activity we did a few years ago that was a big hit!
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Science-based Stories About Space
Dr. Seuss There’s No Place Like Space: The Cat in the Hat returns to take Sally and her brother to outer space. He teaches them about the sun, moon, stars and the planets. This is a great book for younger children.
The Magic School Bus Series has several books about space:
Magic School Bus Takes a Moonwalk: Preschool – 3rd grade, 32 pages
Magic School Bus Presents Our Solar System: Grades 1 – 3, 32 pages (This is actually non-fiction, but wanted to keep it with the other Magic School Bus books.)
Magic School Bus Rides Again: Satellite Space Mission: Grades 1 – 3, 96 pages
Magic School Bus: Space Explorers: Grades 2 – 5, 96 pages
Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon Magic Tree House is always one of our favorites.
The Mission Possible Mystery at Space Center Houston We love the America’s National Mystery Book Series and were excited to find this one!
Choose Your Own Adventure: Space and Beyond and Choose Your Own Adventure: Moon Quest are great for children ages 9-12 and we have even used this series for read alouds earlier than that.
George’s Secret Key to the Universe is the first is a series of six adventure books that teach a lot about our solar system and computing. Written for 3rd-7th grades. We enjoyed this series as read alouds in our homeschool.
Non-fiction Books About Space
Moonshot:The Flight of Apollo 11 is a picture book written in rhyme that young children will enjoy and even older children will learn from.
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race You may have heard of this 2016 movie, (rated PG). Here is a picture book to share this story with your children.
IP Factly’s Early Reader Books about Space. There is one for each planet as well as for the sun and the moon. You can download these for free if you have the Kindle Unlimited plan.
The Best Book of Spaceships This 32 page book is appropriate for Grades 1-3.
Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: This book can be read on its own or used with Magic Tree House Midnight on the Moon.
National Geographic has many books related to space for a variety of ages including some for beginning readers.
The Huge Book of Space Facts for Kids is appropriate for Grades 4-6 and is available for free with Kindle Unlimited.
IP Factly’s 101 Facts Series also has several space books available through Kindle Unlimited.
Who Was Neil Armstrong? This is our favorite biography series and I was glad to see they had this book.
Who Was Galileo? If you want to study the history of space exploration, this can be a great place to start.
Where is Our Solar System? Another book in the Who Was..? series. Check out our FREE Unit Study based upon this book!
What is NASA? This is also a Who Was…? series book.
Space Race: The Story of Space Exploration to the Moon and Beyond This is a brand new book for 3rd to 6th graders.
Moon Exploration Fact and Fantasy by Dover Coloring Books High-end coloring books are a great way to learn about a subject and have a fun, hands on activity at the same time.
Space Videos
Magic School Bus has three episodes related to space: Gets Lost in Space (About: The Solar System), Out of this World (About: Space Rocks), and Sees Stars (About: Stars). You can find these on youtube.com or buy a set of DVDs with all 52 episodes in the series.
Bill Nye has several episodes about space on youtube.com as well.
Free School has videos about space on youtube.com and would be appropriate throughout elementary school. It has text on the videos so these are great for children with weaker listening skills, but strong reading skills.
Crash Course is one of our favorite series on youtube.com starting at about 3rd grade. They use an engaging lecture style so good listening skills are important. They have compiled their space videos together here.
Other List of Books About Space
If you still feel like you have not found what you needed in this list, check out these two book lists as well as the rest of their sites.
Space.com: Best Kids’ Space Books for the Holidays
Planetary.org: Emily Lakdawalla’s Recommended Space Books for Kids, 2018
Hands-on Activity About Space
When my oldest was in 1st grade, we made a solar system model that we hung in his bedroom using the step-by-step instructions below. I need to do this project again with my youngest this year!
How to Make a Solar System Mobile
Do you have a favorite resource for learning about space? Please comment below and share it with others!
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