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Science-themed fiction for the middle grades


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I'd like to find some more books like The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, covering any branch of science, to use alongside nonfiction for my rising sixth-grader. Any ideas?

 

 I was just going to suggest that book when I saw the thread title! Did you read the sequel? The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate.

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Lucy and Stephen Hawking (yes, that Stephen Hawking, Lucy is his daughter) have a series: 

George's Secret Key to the Universe 

George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt

George and the Big Bang

George and the Unbreakable Code

 

I've read the first one and it was quite enjoyable, with fabulous photos from the Hubble telescope in the middle, as I remember.

 

http://www.hawking.org.uk/books.html

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- Nim's Island (Orr) -- biomes: island

- Call It Courage (Armstrong) -- biomes: S. Pacific island

- Lost in the Barrens (Farley) -- biomes: arctic

- Shackleton's Stowaway (McKernan) -- biomes: antarctic; survival

- My Season with Penguins (Webb) -- biomes: antarctic; penguins

- My Side of the Mountain (George) -- biomes: mountain

- series of eco mystery books by George

- Hoot (Hiaasen) -- and other ecology-based fiction by Hiaasen

- The Big Wave (Buck) -- natural disaster: tsunami

- The Twenty-One Balloons (duBois) -- inventions; island; volcano

- Every Soul a Star (Mass) -- total solar eclipse

- Leviathan (Westerfeld) -- mechanical devices in an alternative WW1 steam punk world

- Dragonwings (Yep) -- flight

- The Strictest School in the World (Whitehouse) -- flight

- Physics Quest: Nikola Tesla and the Electric Fair -- electricity -- free online graphic novel

Quark Chronicles -- (intelligent design based) botany, zoology, and anatomy info woven into fiction stories

- Fever (Anderson) -- infectious disease

- Parcel of Patterns (Walsh) -- or -- Master Cornhill (Mcgraw) -- 17th century plague (infectious disease)

 

As read-alouds, you might try:

- The Martian (Weir) -- fiction; Mars, survival, astronomy, math, physics, botany, etc.

- Kon Tiki (Heyersdahl) -- non-fiction; 1940s recreation of a log raft sailing from S. America to Pacific Islands

 

Mostly non-fiction (a few fiction titles mixed in) -- Teachers First: Curri-Connects Book Lists:

Earth Science

Physics

Solar System and Space

Motion

Natural Disasters

Weather

Animals and Habitats

Flight and Flying Things

Bridges and Structures

Medicine and Health

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I second Simon Mayo's Itch series. Chemistry + action. There's some low-level language. 

 

We also loved Jennifer Holm's The Fourteenth Goldfish. This is a fun novel with quirky characters and plenty of science, including ethics related to science. Highly recommend this one.

 

And there's also The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin Grief + science. We haven't read this one yet, but it recently arrived and I can tell you that the cover feels lovely. I just like touching it.  :001_smile:

 

 

 

Edited by chocolate-chip chooky
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