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Good science/nature reads?


nmoira
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**I made a book collection over at LibaryThing (tags to come, only those I own are tagged currently). There are so many titles the list is unwieldy in its current format here.**

 

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?viewstyle=5&view=nmoira&collection=133922&shelf=list&sort=dewey

 

This is sorted by Dewey Decimal classification. Unfortunately it is not one of the default fields for visitors. If you are a LibraryThing member (free), you can customize the fields all you like. Otherwise, you can still sort by any of the fields visible to you. There is more than one "Style," each with different default fields.

 

All new books will be added on LibraryThing only.

 

==================

 

I'm looking for some good secular science/nature reads for the next year for DD the Elder. Memoirs and personal musing are OK if they don't get too "boring" in content for a 9yo. :tongue_smilie: Also nothing with gloom and doom as its central focus; I need her to be able to sleep at nights. I'm holding off on James Herriot as they'll be part of a literature study in another year or so. I need about 45 books (one a week for a school year, with the occasional week off), and I'm guessing at least an extra 20 beyond so to give some choice. ETA: We're now looking at 90, with a buffer of 20 or 30)

 

So far, though obviously nature heavy at this point, I've got:

 

Bats Sing, Mice Giggle: The Surprising Science of Animals' Inner Lives

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (I have yet to pre-read this)

Never Cry Wolf

The Inner World of Farm Animals

That Quail, Robert

 

And a handful of graphic novels.

 

I'd love to hear about your favorites. :)

 

==============================================================

 

ETA: Added from posts below...

 

Michael Collier's Over the Rivers, Over the Mountains, and Over the Coasts

Snake Pits, Talking Cures and Magic Bullets

Hoaxed!: Fakes and Mistakes in the World of Science

Fantastic Feats and Failures

Dyes

Cave Sleuths

Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance

Adaptation

A Field Guide to Bacteria

Arnie, the Darling Starling

The Mind of the Raven

 

A Girl of the Limberlost

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

 

Life on Earth and Beyond: An Astrobiologist's Quest

Cool Stuff Exploded

Plate Tectonics

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge

Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates

The Cats of Roxville Station

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

1001 Inventions That Changed the World

Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Discovery of the Smallpox Vaccine

 

Adaptation (above) comes from the Science Concepts series of books from Twenty First Century Books. All that I've seen so far look good:

Amazon search results

Each book deals with a single topic such as photosynthesis, cells, energy, symbiosis and food chains.

 

The Flying Circus of Physics

Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities

The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

 

The Living Year by Richard Headstrom (changes through the seasons)

The Year of the Turtle by David M. Carroll

Wild Season by Allan W. Eckert (narrative food chain--highly recommended but warning, bunnies get eaten!)

The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson

Discovering Amphibians: Frogs And Salamanders of the Northeast by John Himmelman (we're in the NW, so skipping this one)

Discovering Moths by John Himmelman

 

Nim's Island

Island of the Blue Dolphins

The Cay (some survival stuff, mostly about a boy's hatred of black people, but the setting is interesting)

Sequels to My Side of The Mountains--Frightful's Mountain and ... On the Far Side of the Mountain

Freckles, the prequel of Girl of The Limberlost--it's more a setting than a naturey story

 

Secrets of Vesuvius

There are some other interesting looking books in the series, including: Buried in Ice (the Franklin Expedition); The Lost Wreck of the Isis (ancient Roman ship); Into the Mummy's Tomb (Tutankhamun)

 

Continued in post #3 below...

Edited by nmoira
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Guest kraakrs

My Family and Other Animals and others by Gerald Durell - beautiful nature descriptions of his idyllic childhood in Corfu but there are some descriptions of animal reproduction so I'm not certain of your comfort level with that

 

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

 

A World in a Drop of Water by Alvin Silverstein

 

Girls Who Looked Under Rocks by Jeannine Atkins

 

Thanks for listing some of your choices. They sound interesting.

 

Warmly,

Suji

funschooling.net

Edited by kraakrs
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My Family and Other Animals and others by Gerald Durell - beautiful nature descriptions of his idyllic childhood in Corfu but there are some descriptions of animal reproduction so I'm not certain of your comfort level with that
Thank you. And we're fine with that. :)

 

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

She quite liked this one.

 

=========================================

Combined list continued:

 

My Family and Other Animals and others by Gerald Durell

A World in a Drop of Water by Alvin Silverstein

 

Anything by Sue Hubbell. Broadsides from the Other Orders and A Book of Bees. She's probably best known for Waiting for Aphrodite

Eugenie Clark. For youngers there is her biography Shark Lady. She also wrote an autobiography called Lady with a Spear and another called The Lady and the Sharks

 

King Solomon's Ring by Konrad Lorenz

Thoreau's The Maine Woods

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry (*I* want to read this, but I think it's a bit much for her right now)

Edited by nmoira
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My ds11 likes Bernd Heinrich- he is reading this one now http://www.amazon.com/Summer-World-Season-Bernd-Heinrich/dp/B002T4501E/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301020238&sr=1-6

(I haven't read any of his books, just talked about them w/ds)

OH, thank you. The Mind of the Raven looks to be right up her alley... mine too for that matter. :D I'll check out his other books as well.
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I have found many interesting books from this list of outstanding science trade books

http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/

although a good number of them are picture books and the organizational scheme is lacking (by year, and then within that, by subtopic NOT by age).

What a great resource, thank you. :)
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I thought of this one, too: "Girl of the Limberlost." All of Gene Stratton Porter's books actually. Anyway "Girl" is about a girl in Indiana whose widowed and bitter mother doesn't want to "waste" the money to send her to high school. She ends up collecting butterflies and selling them to pay for herself. I liked the book a lot as a girl. It's from 1909 and you can read it online.

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I thought of this one, too: "Girl of the Limberlost." All of Gene Stratton Porter's books actually. Anyway "Girl" is about a girl in Indiana whose widowed and bitter mother doesn't want to "waste" the money to send her to high school. She ends up collecting butterflies and selling them to pay for herself. I liked the book a lot as a girl. It's from 1909 and you can read it online.
Thanks. That's one I've already picked up, but hasn't yet been read. It and Gentle Ben have been added to the pile. :001_smile:
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A few more (and I've been updating the first post):

 

Adaptation (listed above) comes from the Science Concepts series of books from Twenty First Century Books. All that I've seen so far look good:

Amazon search results

Each book deals with a single topic such as photosynthesis, cells, energy, symbiosis and food chains.

 

The Flying Circus of Physics

Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities

The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

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The Living Year by Richard Headstrom (changes through the seasons)

The Year of the Turtle by David M. Carroll

Wild Season by Allan W. Eckert (narrative food chain--highly recommended but warning, bunnies get eaten!)

The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson

Discovering Amphibians by John Himmelman

Discovering Moths by John Himmelman

 

The Our Living World of Nature series by McGraw-Hill: e.g. The Life of the Forest (Jack McCormick); The Life of the Pond; The Life of the Desert etc. (Good for in-depth biome/habitat study)

Edited by Kalmia
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Nim's Island

Island of the Blue Dolphins

The Cay (some survival stuff, mostly about a boy's hatred of black people, but the setting is interesting)

Sequels to My Side of The Mountains--Frightful's Mountain and ...can't remember

Freckles, the prequel of Girl of The Limberlost--it's more a setting than a naturey story

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Thanks everyone. :) I've moved most, but not yet all, of the suggestions made on this and the other thread into the main list. However, over the next few days, I'm going to make a book list over at LibaryThing. There are so many titles the list is unwieldy in its current format. I'll post a link when it's ready.

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**I made a book collection over at LibaryThing (tags to come, only those I own are tagged currently). There are so many titles the list is unwieldy in its current format here.**

 

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?viewstyle=5&view=nmoira&collection=133922&shelf=list&sort=dewey

 

This is sorted by Dewey Decimal classification. Unfortunately it is not one of the default fields for visitors. If you are a LibraryThing member (free), you can customize the fields all you like. Otherwise, you can still sort by any of the fields visible to you. There is more than one "Style," each with different default fields.

 

All new books will be added on LibraryThing only.

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!!! This is so cool. How did you do this? I want to do it for my books.
Are you already on librarything? If so, pick a view style (A, B, etc.) then click on the little gear icon to customize fields.
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I've been thinking about this Moira, as it's hard for me to gauge what a bright nine year old might like. I really wanted to like the George books (Lucy Hawking), but I just found them sort of over-simplified and boring. I really like some of the shorter books Steven Hawking has done - but don't know if your daughter likes physics enough to like them or not:

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=a+briefer+history+of+time&x=11&y=23

 

A Briefer History of Time is the most recent, and most abbreviated, I think....

 

There are a couple of adult chemistry books floating around that some chemistry oriented kids I know of have loved. The chapters make shorter stories that could be read on their own, as opposed to reading the entire book if it's too long:

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=a+briefer+history+of+time&x=11&y=23#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+disappearing+spoon&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Athe+disappearing+spoon

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_51?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=napoleon's+buttons+how+17+molecules+changed+history&sprefix=napoleon's+buttons+how+17+molecules+changed+history&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Anapoleon's+buttons+how+17+molecules+changed+history&ajr=3

 

I'm not sure which was my favorite of these, Napoleon's Buttons, maybe, but the Disappearing Spoon included some interesting stories, too....

 

Jean Craighead George has out a ton of nature related books and I didn't see all of them included on your list. Here's a list of her books and I noticed that she also has out some pocket guides to go along with some of them:

 

http://www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com/works.html

 

I believe I saw that someone mentioned books about the shark lady already, Eugenie Clark. There are several out on her life and work. Here's her website and it lists all the National Geo articles and children's books written about her: http://www.sharklady.com/

 

I saw An Edwardian Lady's Journal listed and Beatrix Potter's journal has been published, too, but it speaks of her coming of age and looking for love, etc. and doesn't seem to me that it would be appropriate nor appreciated by a nine year old looking for science reading, LOL. There is a beautiful journal that has been done for children, however, that includes a lot of info on the natural world and might make a nice accompaniment to naturalist studies:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Beatrix-Potter-Journal/dp/0723258058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301502564&sr=1-1

 

Regarding botany studies, I have had my hat set for these books and have heard good things about them from others:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-World-Wonder-Childrens-Herbal/dp/0892818786/ref=pd_sim_b_4

 

http://www.amazon.com/Shanleyas-Quest-Botany-Adventure-Kids/dp/1892784165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301502855&sr=1-1

 

http://www.amazon.com/Botany-Day-Patterns-Method-Identification/dp/1892784157/ref=pd_sim_b_1

 

Barbara Bash's science books are all terrific, but maybe they're shorter than what you want, I'm not sure:

 

http://barbarabash.com/childrens_books.html

 

She includes info on a blog link about her nature journaling over the years, too, showing how she illustrates her journals.....

 

I'm guessing that the Seymour Simon books are too simplistic for her....?

He has a sign-up at his website for parents with lesson plans to go along with some of his books. He uses photography, rather than illustrations....

 

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World, Faith McNulty (they're supposed to start digging down to the mantle in 2015, I think.....)

 

Of course, I like all Jeanne Bendick books. This one on ocean tide pools is good:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Ocean-Tide-Pool-Redfeather/dp/0805032738/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301504303&sr=1-1

 

She has written a ton of good science books that you never hear about. Here's a listing of some of them:

 

http://www.librarything.com/author/bendickjeanne

 

 

We also have this book on tide pools that is good (and he has written another on wetlands, as well):

 

http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/Tide_Pools/0060270756/

 

We love this book, but it is as much about coming of age in South Africa as about nature:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Warthogs-Wisdom-Lyall-Watson/dp/0753450666

 

Along that same vein, I love Elspeth Huxley's Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard, but don't know that they are right for a nine year old. Also West with the Night, etc. for more on Africa during colonialism. All these give a good picture of the continent and its wildlife, but the story lines might be more for a teen.....

 

There's another book we've read about a South African family that adopts a warthog that is wonderful, but I can't think of the name of it right now.....

 

I'll keep thinking about this....

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Thanks you. I always find something in your recommendations. :)

 

I'll be out for the day but will go through them tonight.

 

I've been thinking about this Moira, as it's hard for me to gauge what a bright nine year old might like.
So much depends on how direct and engaging the subject matter is. She will happily read a 500-page "wall of text" about, say, crows and ravens if it's engagingly written and actually about crows and ravens -- as opposed to a work generously interspersed with extended musings about the author's personal life, excepting Farley Mowat, of course. :tongue_smilie: Otherwise, unless the personal bits are easily skimmed or skipped or are themselves amusing, a wall of text is out.

 

I'm not looking solely for high level works though, and have included a handful of picture books and a fair bit of middle grade/YA fiction (and hopefully will find more), and some single-topic texts geared toward 5-8 graders.

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Jean Craighead George has out a ton of nature related books and I didn't see all of them included on your list. Here's a list of her books and I noticed that she also has out some pocket guides to go along with some of them:

 

http://www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com/works.html

 

I had no idea she was so prolific. While I read the Thirteen Moons series as a child, I didn't know it was George. Our library has only five of the "Moon" titles, but I'll get the rest via ILL.
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I've been adding to the list, but I wanted to draw attention to the Uncle Albert books... I'd forgotten about them.

 

The Time and Space of Uncle Albert

Black Holes and Uncle Albert

Uncle Albert and the Quantum Quest

 

and also this little gem I picked up a couple years ago:

 

The Turtle and the Universe

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  • 2 months later...

I'm still adding and adapting the list (link in my sig), but here's our latest cool find:

 

Caveman Chemistry

 

There are some Biblical characters in the book, but I'd not characterize this as a Christian work. One of the characters is a Chinese girl, another is Venus; I wouldn't characterize it as a Chinese or ancient Greek work either. :001_smile: There's a mix of historical, mythological, and literary elements (Biblical and otherwise).

 

A review can be found here:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed081p490

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What a wonderful and inspirational thread! Thanks to this thread, I just signed up with Library Thing and added most of these titles to my own library. :D

 

nmoira, how are you planning on using these with your DD? I'm curious if they are just reading material for her, or if you will do discussion/narration/notebooking etc? Is this your primary science 'program' or in addition to something else?

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What a wonderful and inspirational thread! Thanks to this thread, I just signed up with Library Thing and added most of these titles to my own library. :D
:001_smile: I'm slowly adding tags. This whole thing is turning into a bigger project than anticipated, and DD is enjoying it so much she'd like to take a "year off" history next year to pursue a similar project.

 

nmoira, how are you planning on using these with your DD? I'm curious if they are just reading material for her, or if you will do discussion/narration/notebooking etc? Is this your primary science 'program' or in addition to something else?
We're at a dead end in "formal" science without moving ahead in math, so this reading only and is primarily for exposure. DD views it as a "year off," but she's an excellent and fast reader with good retention and will happily chat away about the books that interest her most (the Uncle Albert books by Stannard and Sleights of Mind are big favourites). I've purchased a few of the obvious keepers and am rotating titles from the public library, but I let her choose what to read, with the exception of stipulating that one of every two books must be a first read.
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I love your user name. :D

 

I don't know if you're still looking for things (that's quite a list! what fun you're going to have together!), but I had an idea that I may have missed on my very quick skim through your titles: has your daughter read Thomas Keneally's "Ned Kelly and the City of Bees"? I noticed that you had some bee non-fiction books, and thought she might like a fictional work to go with them, possibly.
Thanks!

 

Also, do you know YES magazine?
We subscribe to both Yes and Know. :tongue_smilie:

 

My other thought, since I saw a Canadian naturalist or two or three on your list, was Grey Owl--I wonder if she'd like reading about him? The whole hoax thing makes such an interesting story.
I'll have to see what's available. We've talked a bit about Farley Mowat's propensity for embellishment ;) but I hadn't considered Grey Owl. He was spoken of in somewhat hushed tones when I was in school (in Ontario), but I should be able to get past that.
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