Chapter Books
Chapter books for intermediate grades and middle school provide a rich source of science-related material. Students will make their own connections to classroom science and to science discovered in informal settings such as museums and nature centers.
The Big Burn
Author: Jeanette Ingold
Ages: Young adult
Publisher: Harcourt Paperbacks, 2003
Science Concepts: Fire ecology, scientific observation
Based on a true wildfire that devastated parts of Montana and Idaho a century ago, this novel features field notes that are strategically placed before the events they chronicle. Some of the best writing in the book is found in these notes, and they unite the story of the fires with the science of what is happening.
Excerpt:
The filthy sky lay so close in and low that Lizbeth couldn’t see the tree line. Drifting tendrils of smoke made Celia – pacing the clearing in front of the cabin – look more like a ghost than a woman.
We don’t belong here, Lizbeth thought. This is crazy.
Maybe if the smoke had been this thick and the fire smell this pronounced when they’d woken up this morning, they’d have taken Ranger Logan’s advice after all and gone to town.
The City of Ember
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Yearling, 2004
Science Concepts: Environmentalism, electricity
Part science fiction, part environmental mystery, this is an engaging story about two young people who look beyond what they know to find a solution to dwindling resources. Beautifully written, it includes the reader as a participant in solving the mystery of the lack of electricity.
Excerpt:
"Curiosity leads to trouble," said Redge Stabmark. He peered down at the crowd. "You have caused a commotion." He pulled her toward the door and hustled her down all three flights of stairs. When they came out into the waiting room, Barton Snode was standing there looking flustered, his jaw twitching from side to side. Next to him was the mayor.
"A child causing trouble, Mayor Cole," said the chief guard.
Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster
Author: Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin
Ages: 7-9
Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 1971
Science Concepts: Superconductivity, magnetism, electricity
Long out of print but a staple in many school and home libraries, the Danny Dunn series follows a young boy on his scientific adventures. So much has happened in the world of science since the series started in the 1950s that these books can play an important role in the classroom as students find mistakes or misunderstandings. On the other hand, there are many science ideas that have stood the test of time. The discussion of superconductors excerpted below, for example, includes an explanation by Professor Bullfinch of magnetic fields, electrical conductors and superconductors, areas of rigorous research today. Written for children, Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster is also a fun read for their parents.
Excerpt:
"Don't you see?" said the Professor. "It's a superconductor."
"But that's incredible!" Dr. Fenster said. "At room temperature?"
"So it appears. There's no other explanation."
"A superconductor?" Danny put in. "What's that?"
Egg-Drop Blues
Author: Jacqueline Turner Banks
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2003
Science Concepts: Science education, experimentation
The popular egg-drop activity is used as the backdrop for a story about a young man who needs a good grade to do well in science. The process he uses to create his egg-drop container and the science class culture make for entertaining reading.
Excerpt:
He’s still a good brother, but he’s a lousy egg-drop partner. We had to start over from scratch. I didn’t take the notes I was supposed to, so I had no idea how much tape I had wrapped around the egg after I put the bubble packing (the kind people like to pop) around it. The egg cracked the first six times we tried it.
Eva
Author: Peter Dickinson
Ages: 12-16
Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 1990
Science Concepts: Organ transplant, science ethics
This book deals with the sophisticated concept of animal-human transplantation. After a devastating accident, the protagonist awakens to find her brain in the body of a chimpanzee. Beyond the moral and ethical issues that students might discuss, the story brings up the responsibility of scientists to society as a whole.
Excerpt:
Carefully Eva pushed herself off the pillow and sat. With her right arm she heaved the bedclothes aside, then twisted herself till her legs dangled over the edge. All wrong. She was thinking too much. This was how a human would try to get out of bed, unaided for the first time, after a long illness. The ghost was very strong.
The Golden Compass
Author: Philip Pullman
Ages: 10 and up
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1996
Science Concepts: Magnetic vs. geographic north, navigation, celestial geography
This is the first of Pullman's popular "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Like its sequels (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass), this novel combines fantasy and science in a story of two young people in search of answers. The trilogy has won prizes for both children's books and book of the year.
Excerpt:
If you remember, Grumman’s expedition vanished eighteen months ago. The German Academy sent him up there to go as far north as the magnetic pole and make various celestial observations. It was in the course of that journey that he observed the curious phenomenon we’ve already seen. Shortly after that, he vanished. It’s been assumed that he had an accident and that his body’s been lying in a crevasse all this time. In fact, there was no accident.
Ice Drift
Author: Theodore Taylor
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Harcourt Paperbacks, 2006
Science Concepts: Ice floes, Arctic Circle, Arctic wildlife, North Pole
Author of the popular novel The Cay, Taylor uses the same award-winning techniques to craft an adventure story about two Inuit brothers, their search for seals on an ice floe in the Arctic and the isolation they face. Easily incorporated into the study of geography, science, social studies or literature, Ice Drift includes facts about the Arctic Circle, Inuit culture, The Hayes Arctic Expedition (1860-61) and the science of ice floes.
Excerpt:
In the Greenland Strait above the Arctic Circle is slush ice, rind ice, cake ice. There is land-fast floe-edge ice, sometimes an ice foot along the edge of the shores, and glacier ice tongues; fields of pack ice a hundred miles square. There is broken sea ice, sometimes submerged, honeycombed and rotten.
The Island
Author: Gary Paulsen
Ages: Young adult
Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 1990
Science Concepts: Geology
One of the lesser known Paulsen books, The Island begins with a geological survey of the area in which the story takes place. Terms like glacier, Ice Age and fault lines underscore the timelessness of formations on the Earth and the dynamic processes that form them. Also by Paulsen, Hatchet (a Newbery Honor book) and The River contain many science concepts.
Excerpt:
Sometimes the heron isn’t there even when he’s there.
All tall lines and long lines, he stands in the reeds and grass along the side of the bay and does not curve until he looks down for a frog or minnow, he freezes and holds the stillness for such a long time that even when you’re looking at him, looking right at him and you know he is there all gray-metal-shine and beautiful he disappears and isn’t there even when he is there.
The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo
Author: Jean Craighead George
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: HarperTrophy, 1993
Science Concepts: Protected species, environmental adaptations, animal behavior, the natural world
The author of a series of ecological mysteries, George combines science and adventure in all of her stories.
Excerpt:
We left the vultures to their feast. Their great wings swished like taffeta skirts as the birds rose, then dropped down and challenged each other for the fish. Where the salt water was seeping upward into the land, the saw grass and cypress trees were dead or dying.
We walked home in silence.
Orwell's Luck
Author: Richard Jennings
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books, 2006
Science Concepts: MRIs, X-rays, experimental design, science fairs, animal behavior
Orwell is an injured rabbit found one morning on top of the just-delivered local newspaper. His 12-year-old rescuer forms a special bond with the rabbit, which seems to be sending her coded messages in the form of horoscopes. Suitable for intermediate grades to middle school, this is a lovely tale of friendship, adolescent philosophy and family relationships. On the science side, there is an explanation of MRIs as compared to X-rays, discussion of experimental design for a science fair project, and animal behavior.
Excerpt:
Have you ever noticed how things that are obvious often do not start out that way? It’s because you were expecting them to be something else. So you work really hard trying to figure out a problem, and just when you begin to look at it a little differently, all of a sudden your brain goes Bing! And the answer is staring you right in the face, as plain as a little brown rabbit.
Phoenix Rising
Author: Karen Hesse
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Puffin, 1995
Science Concepts: Nuclear power, radiation
Hesse, a popular young adult author, again combines science fact with fiction in this story about nuclear explosion survivors. The sophisticated nature of the story, with references to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, make this suitable for many readers, especially when paired with discussion of nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Excerpt:
Lifting the radiation detector from the kitchen table, I swept it across the room. The same level we’d registered all week. Eight days since the accident and always the steady click of a normal reading.
Pulling off my mask, I hung it on a hook by the stove. Mr. Perry, our principal, said as long as the wind kept blowing radiation away from us, we only needed our masks outside. Muncie’s mother made Muncie wear her mask all the time.
The Second Mrs. Gioconda
Author: E.L. Konigsburg
Ages: Young adult
Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2005
Science Concepts: Science history
For fans of Konigsburg’s books, this is a real departure. A work of historical fiction, the book blends the lives of three people whose paths crossed in the Milan of the late 1400s: Leonardo da Vinci, his servant Salai and the Duchess of Milan. The relationship between the artist and his servant brings to the story a picture of fifteenth century Italy as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Konigsburg’s writing does not disappoint, and the story takes the reader to a time when art and war were held in equal esteem by the rich and powerful. Throughout the story, da Vinci works on his horse sculpture, so the picture book Leonardo’s Horse would be an appropriate accompaniment. Da Vinci’s attention to detail and scientific studies are well known, as exemplified in this excerpt:
Excerpt:
During this time Leonardo was engaged in a study of mountains and rivers. He walked great distances in order to sketch the entire view from the mountain or a single wind-blown tree. High in the mountains he had discovered seashells that had turned to stone, and he wanted to know how they had gotten there. He wondered long and wandered far to discover the reason that seashells were on a mountaintop; and he often forgot to eat. Salai had gotten into the habit of taking him food.
The Secret Life of Dilly McBean
Author: Dorothy Haas
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1991
Science Concepts: Magnetism
Now out of print, this book about a boy with magnetic hands is found in many school libraries. It is ideal when exploring magnets, magnetism and related concepts.
Excerpt:
Are there many people like me? I mean, magnetic? Dr. Mac said everyone has a little magnetism. But why do I have so much? And my parents, why did they? Is it something my father did in his laboratory? And what use is it?
Silverwing
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Aladdin, 1999
Science Concepts: Animal behavior, carnivores, herbivores, adaptations, food webs, food chains
The hero of this adventure is a bat trying to prove himself to his flock. Separated from the rest of the bats, he meets other bat species and learns which ones are friends and which are not. Each species is described in detail. The story continues with the sequels Sunwing and Firewing.
Excerpt:
"Why did you show me all this?" he asked. What was the point? he wondered. There was nothing he could do to change the past, bring his father back, or even change the future. He was a newborn runt in a Silverwing colony in the middle of nowhere.
A Single Shard
Author: Linda Sue Park
Ages: 10-14
Publisher: Yearling, 2003
Science Concepts: Applied chemistry
This Newbery Award-winning story combines explanations of how early celadon pottery was created with the story of a young man's journey. Science is highlighted when the young man figures out how to make the purest of glazes.
Excerpt:
The village of Ch’ulp’o faced the sea, its back to the mountains and the river edging it like a neat seam. Its potters produced the delicate celadon ware that had achieved fame not only in Korea but as far away as the court of the Chinese emperor.
Stowaway
Author: Karen Hesse
Ages: 10-14
Publisher: Aladdin, 2002
Science Concepts: Geography, earth science, magnetism, astronomy
Geography and earth science combine in an adventure journal written by a boy who sails around the world. Magnets, cartography and astronomy are all incorporated into the journal entries, making the story more real. Hesse, as she did in Out of the Dust, combines real science with fiction in this Newbery Award-winning tale set in the 1700s.
Excerpt:
Friday 2nd: Spain! I cannot see it from my hiding place, but I heard the cry. The Gentlemen brought their casting nets out and fetched in such creatures I can only imagine. Great were their exclamations of wonder. Their excitement makes my hiding so much more difficult to bear. That and the dampness of it all.
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For more information please contact Center Director Roxanne Hughes at hughes@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 645-8179.
Classroom Outreach
