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s/o Best Living Science Books


littleWMN
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We like the "Let's Read and Find Out" series. It has a lot of books about animals and abiut physics suitable for ages 4-8. My 5 year also really likes the books from "The Cat in the Hat Learning Library." These books are rhyming and are mostly about different types of animals.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree: We just used several biome books from The Cat in the Hat set.

 

We also LOVE the Max Axiom, Super Scientist books. (Graphic novel style, hard science.)

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Story of Rocks and Minerals for the Grammar Grades (vintage) by Harold W. Fairbanks

Astronomy by Norman Lockyer--I haven't used this one yet, but I love his style and the way he insists upon the student proving it to himself instead of just accepting the explainations. (this is also a vintage find)

I've got so many more, but I'm not at home today, so I'll try to list them all tonight.

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Let's Read and Find Out

Magic School Bus (especially the chapter books, which are not exactly amazing writing, but have more narrative than the picture books and make a quick read aloud for kids not ready to read them independently)

Basher Books

National Geographic has a bunch of really good ones that have more of a narrative structure - one I recall liking was Waves by Gloria Skurzynski

Shaping Modern Science series (this is a new one that's a little blurby but has good text too)

Cold Light by Anita Sitarski

Shaping the Earth by Dorothy Patent

A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

 

We haven't done much biology in awhile, so I don't have resources for that at the ready, but there are a lot more for than that other things and I've also had a lot of great science biographies, such as Ahoy Ahoy Are You There? about Alexander Graham Bell and Starry Messenger about Galileo.

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we also use the "let's read and find out about" series. our other favorite books are by gail gibbons -- we own a lot of her books as well. lastly, we incorporate some janice van cleave books for fun experiments. we don't like the magic school bus books as much as we enjoy the episodes... so we just watch those. we also like beakman's world. lastly, we love the CLP nature readers. they are chrisitan though-so not for everyone. we really love them a lot. hth.

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Hands on Grossology (especially good for boys!) and Janice Van Cleave's Biology for Every Kid both have fun projects. The DK First Encyclopedias are great for introducing topics.

 

We also enjoyed the One Small Square books and I plan on using them again someday, but more in depth than the first time around.

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The Mae and Ira Freeman science books are great if you can find them. I have several and have found them on thrifting jaunts. Two we are using this term are, The Story of Chemistry, and Fun with Chemistry, Easy Experiments for Young People. They're oldies, but goodies.

 

One more, which is a nice math book by the Freemans, is Fun with Figures, Easy Experiments for Young People. It is kewl. :coolgleamA:

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I like books that get really in depth on a topic, but still interesting. The following about bees was very interesting to my kids (even my 5YO, which really surprised me). I would love to find more like this book. I've gotten others from the library that I thought would be similar but they were a bit too dry for the youngest one.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Hive-Detectives-Chronicle-Catastrophe-Scientists/dp/0547152310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317406186&sr=1-1

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I'm intrigued by the Horrible Science books. Are those any good?

 

Define "good."

 

All the Horrible books (Horrible Science, Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths, etc.) have a certain charm. They really target 8-12 yo independent reader boys who like fart jokes and slightly offbeat humor. Then they take that and use it to teach about pretty much everything under the sun - both stuff you need to know that will line up well with a curriculum and obscure trivia to amaze your friends. They're not the best written things ever, but they're not terrible either and they're exactly what a lot of kids want. I think they're especially perfect for boys who are destined to go on to be nonfiction reading adults (as is the case with lots of men) but are far from ready for adult level popular nonfiction and are stuck being... well, very boyish boys, for the time being.

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I found Animal Architecture by Jennifer Owings Dewey book at the library and I really love both the text and the charcoal illustrations. It has that "Charlotte Mason" feel to it.

 

Here's a snippet from the 'Bumblebees' chapter-

A bumblebee queen newly out of the ground will find a place like an old mouse or mole hole or a crack in a log to build her nest. She manufactures wax inside her body, and it slides out from folds of skin on her belly.

To build a nest, the queen scrapes a smooth spot and lays down a sheet of wax to protect the future colony from dampness. Over this she spreads clumps of pollen gathered from flowers. Then on the pollen she lays a cluster of eggs. The queen applies a thin layer of wax over everything and for five days sits on top of the eggs to keep them warm.

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I'm intrigued by the Horrible Science books. Are those any good?

 

I agree w/it depends on how you define "good." My 9 yod has read 2 that she really enjoyed (sound and light). For exposure to simple principles that are intertwined in bizarre commentary, they are fine and interesting. If you are looking for hard-core science texts, you will not like them.

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George's Secret Key to the Universe - Lucy and Stephen Hawking

 

And there is another one in that series (that I have yet to read) titled:

 

George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt

 

DS12 and DS10 love George.

 

We've also read the latest book 'George and the Big Bang' which was just published a couple of months ago.

 

Cassy

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Define "good."

 

All the Horrible books (Horrible Science, Horrible Histories, Murderous Maths, etc.) have a certain charm. They really target 8-12 yo independent reader boys who like fart jokes and slightly offbeat humor. Then they take that and use it to teach about pretty much everything under the sun - both stuff you need to know that will line up well with a curriculum and obscure trivia to amaze your friends. They're not the best written things ever, but they're not terrible either and they're exactly what a lot of kids want. I think they're especially perfect for boys who are destined to go on to be nonfiction reading adults (as is the case with lots of men) but are far from ready for adult level popular nonfiction and are stuck being... well, very boyish boys, for the time being.

 

I bolded the part that applies to my 11 yo ds and surprisingly he didn't like these. I think for him, they were too lightweight looking to seem like real science and yet if he wanted to read something for fun these were not what he would pick.

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