Living books to go along with a biology class?

[LauraBeth475]

I’d like to give my 4th and 5th graders a reading list to go along with Elemental Science Biology next year.  I’m thinking no book reports, just 9-10 books to read or listen on audio over the year.

I’m planning on a Darwin biography, The Burgess Animal Book, and My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall. They’re both excellent readers, if a little sensitive to graphic nature.  

Any favorite living books with a biology theme?

[2Peanuts]

Since you're reading a Darwin biography, you might want to check out the poetry anthology, The Tree That Time Built. Each chapter (well...at least the ones I've read ?) starts with an excerpt from Darwin's journals and then all the poems of that chapter tie to that excerpt. The poems are diverse - some oldies but goodies (like William Blake's Auguries of Innocence, "To see a World in a grain of sand...") and some poems written just for the anthology by Mary Ann Hoberman. It's a lovely collection and would pair nicely with his biography.

There's also Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly.

If you're ok with graphic novels, there's a nice book called Primates by Jim Ottaviani which looks at the lives of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas and their work. Great way to honor women in science!

Happy reading!

[serendipitous journey]

Seconding Calpurnia, which is also a great read-aloud. (And looking up the other books 2 Peanuts rec'd!)

Here's a link to Jay Hosler's Amazon page.  We really like his graphic novels.  We began Clan Apis as a read-aloud, I think, before the boys took it over, and I've gotten them several other over the past year, at birthdays & Christmas & so on.

ETA: all the above have evolutionary content.

[LauraBeth475]

I probably only want to do one graphic novel, but one would be a nice change of pace.  

We are pro-evolution here, so I did want to add some materials that fit with that.

ETA: We are also fans of women in science books. ?

[2Peanuts]

By the way...the illustrator for Primates, Maris Wick, was apparently an EMT before she became an illustrator. She wrote a graphic novel of the human body called Human Body Theater, which I haven't read but I'm guessing it'll be spot-on in terms of presenting anatomy, since she has a medical background. But I know...that makes 2 graphic novel recommendations! ? Couldn't help it, though, since I was thinking there must be something on anatomy out there that would be an interesting read!

[EKS]

There is a young people's version of The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond.  My son loved it at age 12.

[serendipitous journey]

2 hours ago, 2Peanuts said:

By the way...the illustrator for Primates, Maris Wick, was apparently an EMT before she became an illustrator. She wrote a graphic novel of the human body called Human Body Theater, which I haven't read but I'm guessing it'll be spot-on in terms of presenting anatomy, since she has a medical background. But I know...that makes 2 graphic novel recommendations! ? Couldn't help it, though, since I was thinking there must be something on anatomy out there that would be an interesting read!

Well, there may be something on anatomy that's a good read, but that isn't it.   We have it and the boys have both been totally uninterested, and even I get bored by it (though being a distracted homeschooling mama, I sometimes have the attention span of a gnat).  The See Inside Your Body book has been remarkably long-lived at our house, though the reading level isn't complex.  And The Way We Work book also got a big miss here, so far; we'll try again in a few years.  (The Way Things Work, updated, was another big hit but that's not biology.)

32 minutes ago, EKS said:

There is a young people's version of The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond.  My son loved it at age 12.

Ooooooh.  Thanks! 

[serendipitous journey]

3 hours ago, LauraBeth475 said:

...

ETA: We are also fans of women in science books. ?

Not biology, but check out  "Mathematicians are People, Too".  A generous dose of women, really good books (there are two).  I assign a biography weekly as living math, just read-and-discuss.

[LauraBeth475]

4 hours ago, serendipitous journey said:

Not biology, but check out  "Mathematicians are People, Too".  A generous dose of women, really good books (there are two).  I assign a biography weekly as living math, just read-and-discuss.

Have those books and love them. ?

[HomeAgain]

We are liking Quark Chronicles this year, so that might be an option.  Or Jack's Insects.

If you don't mind very well written picture books, the Born With A Bang set is good.  I tend to give it three passes here: the first reading mostly only the large type for a first runthrough about age 5-6.  The second, reading the entire story on the pages and looking at the author's note in the back.  And the third in middle school, reading the story along with the author's notes and doing more research.

[mumto2]

Holling Clancy Holling’s books.  Pagoo http://bfbooks.com/Pagoo was the best book ever, seriously.  We had so much fun with it!  Wonderful drawings of hermit crabs, mollusks, and pretty much everything else that lives in the ocean.  We did a huge independent study That we designed as we went along wher we did several drawings and wrote a report about each creature that caught our fancy.  I had a stack of additional books from the library......... We also did similar activities with Minn of the Mississippi.

[8filltheheart]

We love HCH's books, too. Other favorites are A  View from the Oak and any of Jean Craighead George's nature book (13 Moon series, her Mtn books, A Day in books, etc.)

[Bluegoat]

I loved The Amateur Naturalist at that age.  And my dd read Fabre's insect boy in 5th and loved it.

[LauraBeth475]

Oh, this would be a good time to finally use Girls Who Looked Under Rocks

[Dudley]

I really enjoyed Dr Jenner and the speckled monster by Marrin about smallpox vaccine and The Great Trouble: a mystery of London, the Blue Death and a Boy called Eel by Hopkinson. This was a awesome story about a boy helping a doctor solve the mystery of what was causing all the death in his neighborhood. Moving from old ways of looking at disease to using good investigative practices to get to the science behind it. Loved it!

[alpacawalker]

We loved the Human Body Theater that was mentioned earlier.  It is a graphic novel, and it covers a lot. 

[HS Mom in NC]

Can we expand the thread to include Middle School?

[fairfarmhand]

This isn’t exactly biology but my dd really enjoyed the young readers edition of the omnivores dilemma.

[LauraBeth475]

2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

This isn’t exactly biology but my dd really enjoyed the young readers edition of the omnivores dilemma.

 

I have that on the list for the older girl. ?  We’re going to read it alongside the human body segment, for health and nutrition.

[Aurelia]

For middle school, you could use Silent Spring, A Sand County Almanac, In Defense of Food and Spark. The first two are environmentally themed and the second two are human body related.