Why I Wrote 20 STEM Books Instead of One Picture Book

The conventional path for a first-time children's book author is to write one picture book, sell it, see if it works, then write a second. That is how almost every successful series in kid-lit starts.

I did the opposite. I wrote 20 STEM books for toddlers before publishing one. People ask me why. The honest answer is three reasons.

Reason 1: The publishing math

Publishing one picture book is selling a unit. Publishing a series is building a library. A family that likes Book 1 has nineteen more places to go. A preschool that likes Book 1 can put a whole phase on the shelf. One book, however good, is a pamphlet next to that.

Reason 2: The developmental math

A child who just turned two is not a child about to turn five. If you write one book that tries to span the whole ages 2 to 4 window, you write a book that is too simple for the older child and too much for the younger one. You satisfy neither.

Twenty books across five developmental phases means the youngest toddler gets Phase 1: Wondering, which is calibrated for them. The four-year-old gets Phase 5: Becoming, which is calibrated for them. The same kid grows through all five phases over two years.

You cannot do this with one book. You cannot really do it with five. You need about 20.

Reason 3: The patent attorney math

This one is the most personal. I have spent more than 20 years helping people protect their inventions. The most consistent thing I have seen across thousands of inventors is that the inventor's mindset is a stack of habits, not a single talent. Curiosity. Drawing things you do not understand yet. Building rough versions. Naming what you made. Saying "I made that" out loud. Sharing without losing credit. Handling a copycat with words instead of a fight. Showing the next kid how.

That stack has eight or nine layers, and every one of them is social and emotional before it is technical. You cannot teach a layer in one book. You cannot even introduce all the layers in one book. You can build a one-book series that waves at the stack, or a 20-book series that takes each layer seriously, one at a time.

I wanted the 20 books because I wanted the stack. The law I practice comes years later, if it comes at all. The habits come first.

What I had to give up to do it this way

The 20-book approach is harder up front. Twenty manuscripts, not one. Twenty books to illustrate. Twenty ISBNs per edition, twenty covers, twenty product pages, twenty read-aloud audio files, twenty educator guides. The capital and time are much higher.

In exchange you get a curriculum, not a book.

Where to start if you are new to the series

If you want to feel what 20-book scaffolding is like, the Phase 1: Wondering bundle (Books 1 to 4) is the cheapest way in. Read all four over a couple of weeks and watch the progression land.

If you want the full library from the start, the complete 20-book set ships gift-ready with the Inventor's Promise poster.

Chris Kuczynski is an engineer turned registered patent attorney, a preschool co-founder, and a dad. He is the author of Kit's Little Sparks, a 20-book STEM series that gives children ages 2 to 4 the social and emotional foundations of the inventor's mindset. It is the first of four age-tiered series for readers ages 2 to 12.