Living Science Books for Kids
Appeal to Imagination, Transport Kids Beyond Facts with Living Books
Aug 4, 2007
Don't expect your child's dry science curriculum to bring science to life. These fun-to-read books provide hooks where kids can connect knowledge to their own experience.
"Living science books" grab a young reader’s (and listener's) imagination with engaging stories and illustrations. In the process, they communicate important facts about our world and the human beings who discover its secrets.
- Pagoo. Written by Holling Clancy Holling, illustrated by Lucille Webster Holling (Houghton-Mifflin ISBN-13: 978-0395539644). This reprinted classic hasn’t lost its charm 5o years after it was originally published. Beginning with a pencil-point sized egg floating in the ocean, this fascinating life story of the little hermit crab, Pagoo, is too difficult for most elementary readers. But read this book aloud to your children (slowly, and shortening where necessary), and none of you will ever forget Pagoo, and his dangerous, yet lucky, life in a tidepool. The Hollings spent years traveling the world, studying and sketching from nature. Their books are masterpieces of scientific accuracy, compelling story line and artistic brilliance.
- A Weed Is a Flower. Written and illustrated by Aliki (Aladdin Books ISBN-13: 978-671664909). The tone and illustrations of this elementary level biography of George Washington Carver perfectly reflect the honest, humble, yet persevering character of the man. Born a slave, he was kidnapped as a baby. His owner searched him out and brought him back, but his mother died, and he never knew a settled home life. As a child, Carver became fascinated with plants, growing a sort of secret garden in the woods in order to better study them. After years of seeking the education he craved, in an era where African Americans were barred from most schools, he became a world-renown expert in plant science. George Washington Carver dedicated the rest of his life to developing food crop varieties and creating new ways to use peanuts, in order to help poor farmers in the South make a living from their land.
- Growing Frogs. Written by Vivian French, illustrated by Alison Bartlett (Candlewick Press ISBN-13:978-0763620523). A highly practical and completely fun picture book about a girl and her mother raising frogs in an aquarium at home. The language is great for reading aloud to a preschooler or kindergartner (with extra explanations in smaller type for those who need more). Although the brightly colored illustrations are primitive in style, they accurately show the “tiny curls” of black growing inside the frog eggs and the feathery gills of newly hatched tadpoles. The author is sensitive to the environmental impact of capturing animals from the wild: she advises readers to take frog spawn only from man-made ponds, and to return the new-grown frogs to their original location. Warning: after reading this book, your child will insist on growing his own frogs.
- The Periodic Table: Elements with Style. Written by Adrian Dingle, illustrated by Simon Basher. (Kingfisher, 2007 ISBN-13: 978-0753460856). Capitalizing on the Anime and MySpace craze, graphic artist Basher has designed a clever icon for each chemical element in the periodic chart, using visual cues to that element’s character and history. For example, the 92nd element, uranium, appears as a tiny, flaming nuclear power man, bursting out of an atomic bomb shell. For most of the elements, the author presents a single page of facts and a short, humorous “first-person” narrative that helps readers remember the element’s properties. Each chapter showcases one chemical family, such as the Alkaline Earth Metals, or the Noble Gases. A bonus fold-out poster displays each element icon in traditional periodic chart form. The Periodic Table: Elements with Style is the perfect study guide for sixth graders who will be introduced to the periodic table this school year.
The copyright of the article Living Science Books for Kids in Children's Non-Fiction is owned by Holly Martin. Permission to republish Living Science Books for Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
