Literature Review
Chapter Books for a content integrated read aloud, book groups, or just to recommend to kids who are particularly engaged with the content.
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie Lamana. A story about New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a ten year old girl longing to celebrate her birthday finds herself and her family struggling to survive both the natural and man-made catastrophes.
The Arctic Code by Matthew Kirby is the first in the Dark Gravity Sequence. For science fiction lovers, this fun and fascinating book stars Eleanor, a climate refugee in the U.S. after the Freeze makes most of the country uninhabitable. Eleanor takes off to search for her mom, a climatologist who was searching for an answer to the new ice age. In doing so, she discovers great adventures, great friends, a mysterious past, and a powerful force searching to control the future. A really fun book that combines adventure, citizenship, and science.
The Turn of the Tide by Rosanne Parry. The story of two cousins who live across the world from each other, brought together by an earthquake and the resulting tsunami who survive natural and human-created disasters together. A story of family, perseverance, problem-solving, and hope.
Picture Books to support content learning as a read aloud or as part of an integrated content library, or to function as mentor texts to inspire students to share their learning in a similar format.
Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up by Lisa Westberg Peters. This collection of charming poems about forces that impact the surface of the Earth, is filled with excellent vocabulary, figurative language that helps develop concepts, luscious word play, and is just plain fun. Highly recommended as a way to enrich your earth science unit with poetry.
Rivers of Sunlight: How the Sun Moves Water Around the Earth by Molly Bang. This literary nonfiction text uses poetic language and lovely illustrations to teach complicated concepts about the interrelatedness of water, earth, the plants and animals that live on earth, and the energy they produce and use. Covers a wide variety of earth science topics, including the water cycle, weathering, erosion, and deposition.
The Earth and the Role of Water by Shirley Duke. I don’t often recommend specific nonfiction titles that fit the standard, textbook-style format, but this one is a really good representative: lots of well-done features of nonfiction, strong integration with changes to Earth’s surface, water, and the interconnections between systems. Pretty spot on readability for 4th graders. It also does a great job of being purposeful and including a call to action for students.
Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes by Johanna Wagstaffe. This is an in-depth nonfiction book about earthquakes by a meteorologist and science news host. The author infuses her experiences with earthquakes, biographical excerpts from other people, and the deeply important perspective of female scientists. Well-written, accessible, with high-quality supporting content and engaging, relevant information.
Older Than Dirt: A Wild but True History of Earth by Don Brown and Dr. Mike Perfit. Nonfiction-ish graphic novel that tells the geological history of Earth as if it were compressed into a 24-hour period. Includes information about tectonic plates, ice ages, continents, violent forces that shape Earth’s surface, creation of mountains and rock, the evolution of life on this planet. Fun format and mentor text for informational graphic writing. The 24 hour compressed history of Earth is a great concrete way for students to understand relative periods of time.
Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands by Catherine Berger Kaye and Phillippe Cousteau. Co-written by a service learning expert and an advocate for the oceans, this book is filled with information and photos about caring for our oceans with positive actions and suggestions for service learning projects.
Make a Splash: A Kid’s Guide to Protecting Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands by Catherine Berger Kaye. This is the elementary level version of Going Blue; similar concept with more readable text and manageable action steps (though both would be great resources to have in the elementary or middle school classroom to differentiate).
One Well: The Story of Water on Earth (Citizen Kid) by Rochelle Strauss. Every single book published by Kids Can Press in the Citizen Kid Series is worth owning and reading. Seriously–a few years ago I just invested and bought most of them. This book teaches water cycle, environmentalism, citizenship, and geography with power and purpose, empowering kids to be wise stewards of Earth’s resources.
Dear Katie, the Volcano is a Girl by Jean Craighead George. This charming book describes the science and the myths behind volcanoes via a conversation between a grandmother and her granddaughter. A great example of perspective, the role of stories and facts, and the way each can inform our understanding of the world around us.
Soil Erosion and How to Prevent It by Natalie Hyde. This is a science reader of the type I generally avoid, but it’s so spot on Ohio’s science standards addressing the forces that change Earth’s surface and the interrelatedness of living creatures in an ecosystem, as well as a call to action with specific suggestions that it is definitely worth using.
Trapped on the Rock: Can Science Save Your Life? by Gerry Bailey. The Science to the Rescue series from Crabtree Publishing is a fun, inquiry inspired nonfiction series that is perfect in readability, interest, and integrated subject matter for the middle grades. The blend of investigative narrative from a character named Joe, and factual information about the geology and geography of mountains, fossils, and the importance of scientific thinking and skills make this book a great high-interest resource.
Cracking Up: A Story About Erosion by Jacqui Bailey. A great little graphic story illustrating the processes of weather, erosion, and deposition. Helpful for making these forces concrete and a nice mentor text for using a graphic format to teach out content knowledge.
Erosion: Changing Earth’s Surface by Robin Koontz. Lovely illustrations with a good introduction to earth processes and related vocabulary. A valuable part of an Earth Sciences picture book library.
Grand Canyon by Jason Chin. Pretty much just go buy every Jason Chin book. This gorgeous exploration of the geology, geography, flora, fauna, maps, ecosystems, history, and humans of the Grand Canyon is exceptional and can be integrated into any Earth Science, Life Science, Geography, or Citizenship unit. If you aspire to teach in an integrated way, this book is a great model of how to pull all kinds of content into one gloriously complex and complete book.
Cave Detectives: Unraveling the Mystery of an Ice Age Cave by David L. Harrison. This picture book is designed to look like a scientist’s notebook and, consequently, feels approachable and can function as a great mentor text for creating scientific journals based on research. It includes great examples of features of nonfiction without feeling like a textbook or science reader. It does a great job of teaching prehistoric times, geology, fossils, earth changes, and modeling scientific thinking and inquiry.
Island: A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin. More Jason Chin. Just get them all. This one is a study of the unique ecosystem of the Galapagos: the geology of the islands, the flora, fauna, and history. Detailed, gorgeous illustrations combined with simple, rich text.
Under Ohio: The Story of Ohio’s Rocks and Fossils by Charles Ferguson Barker. While it certainly has the feel of a small local publication, this book does a great job of teaching Ohio’s geological history. It’s well-written with charming art and illustrations. The time lines, charts, and other graphic features are purposeful and the local references make abstract concepts concrete for middle grade students. Information about fossils help support Ohio’s Life Science standards as well, and illustrate the concept of interconnections between systems. Local site references make this a great resource for planning field trips and engaging student’s background knowledge and experiences.
Ohio Rocks: A Guide to Geologic Sites in the Buckeye State by Albert B. Dickas. This is a dense informational resource, that I highly recommend for 4th grade classrooms in Ohio. It gives a fairly brief geological history of Ohio that is quite advanced but helpful particularly for building teacher background knowledge. The rest of the book is then a mapped analysis of fifty geologically interesting sites in Ohio with photos, maps, analysis, and history. Great references for field trips, engaging student’s background knowledge and experience, as well as making connections to Ohio’s life science and fossils.
Geology Lab for Kids: 52 Projects to Explore Rocks, Gems, Geodes, Crystals, Fossils, and Other Wonders of the Earth’s Surface by Garret Romaine. A collection of simple, fun, engaging activities. Materials are generally easily accessible and the science connections and supplemental information makes them purposeful. Note: many of the activities use food analogies so school policies and student allergies may make some of these better suited for home enrichment suggestions.
The Integrated Curriculum Classroom 