Holm, Jennifer L. (2014) The
Fourteenth Goldfish New York: Yearling.
![Image result for the fourteenth goldfish](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518wUHLASNL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Opening Lines: “When I
was in preschool, I had a teacher named Starlily. She wore rainbow tie-died dresses and was
always bringing in cookies that were made with granola and flax and had no
taste.”
Okay, so the story is maybe a bit far-fetched. Ellie is a sixth-grader who gets a call to
pick up her grandfather from the police.
She knows her grandfather is a scientist/genetic inventor who experiments
with jellyfish. She eventually finds out
that he has invented a genetic formula that has regressed his body to that of a
sixth grader. He has retained his
crankiness, old man fashion sense, and passion for science. At first Ellie finds him annoying and embarrassing,
but eventually he ignites an interest in science in her, which eventually grows
to a passion, and she helps him to consider some of the ethical implications of
his research. Throw in a boy classmate
who joins them, mostly to spend time with Ellie, which leads to a budding first
romance and you have got a story that will grab middle grade students and may
even get them to love science (real science – which doesn’t necessarily
translate to what we teach in school I am afraid.)
Nothing objectionable here that I noticed. Should be great for fourth through seventh
grades or so.
Heiligman,
Deborah (2009) Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith. New
York: Henry Holt and Company
Opening
Lines: “In the summer of 1838, in his
rented rooms on Great Marlborough Street, London, Charles Darwin drew a line
down the middle of a piece of scrap paper.
He had been back in England for almost two years, after a monumental
voyage around the world. He was in his
late twenties. It was time to
decide. Across the top of the left-hand
side he wrote Marry. On the right he wrote Not Marry. And in the
middle: This is the question.”
![Image result for charles and emma](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514IS-JfCDL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
In the world we live in, Charles
Darwin is the father of evolutionary theory which some people hold equal to atheism. In the world and time that Charles Darwin
lived in, however, things were not so clear cut. Like everyone else in his time, Darwin was
raised attending church and living in a society rooted in Christian ethics and
understandings. When he began to think about
evolution, he questioned and doubted the Christian understanding of how the
world began and how God maintains it.
However, this belief system was not easily dismissed by Darwin. One reason he struggled with belief in God his
whole life and never fully settled the question was his wife Mary.
Yet this is not a book with an axe
to grind. It is a carefully researched
and well- written book about a remarkably strong marriage and the evolving
thought of a very thoughtful couple. I did not know that Darwin studied
theology at University and intended to become a country parson before his interest
in science took over. In 1836, for example, Darwin published a
letter in a South African newspaper arguing for increased funding for
missionaries. Two years later he notes
in his journal that while he remains a strong believer, he is beginning to question
the literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. Before he married Emma, Darwin asked his
father if he should discuss his doubts with his fiancé. Darwin’s father counselled him against such
an action. Darwin talked to her about it
anyway. When Emma’ sister Fanny died,
Emma became more devout. As they grew
older together, the death of several of their children and Charles’s own
illness continued to drive Emma deeper into belief and caused Charles to
question more deeply – but until his death, he continually was searching for
ways that he could share the depth of Emma’s belief.
Heiligman doesn’t slouch in
describing the development of Charles’s understanding of the the way the
animals of the world interact and change over time. And in the end, the book does not try to
argue either side of this debate, but perhaps to argue that the debate itself
is an unfair reading of what Darwin himself was thinking. It may help students who struggle with this
question themselves to understand that it is not always necessary to have a
clear answer to all such mysteries.
This book is ideal for high school
students. There is nothing objectionable
here, though teachers should recognize that this is a sensitive issue for some
parents.
Koch,
Falynn (2017) Science Comics: Bats:
Learning to Fly. New York: First Second.
![Image result for Science Comics Bats Learning to fly](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-qRe-fdRL._SX351_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Opening
Lines: Hoo!/ Ugh./ I hate to admit it…
but I think I’m lost. Little brown
bat. Myotis lucifugus./ I’m glad y’all
could make it out for this special nighttime hike. The national park only does this a few times
each year.
This graphic novel is one of the
latest in a series. Some of the earlier
books in the series seemed to be struggling to figure out how the graphic novel
format could be effectively utilized to explain science. With this book, the series seems to have
found its fee. There is a single
narrative through-line about a little brown bat and a teenaged girl who
initially is not so interested in what the ranger has to day, but when the bat
gets close to the group and one of the panicked humans swats it, the girl
decides to help the bat in any way she can.
But
woven through the narrative is plenty of explanation and exposition about
nearly every aspect of a bat’s life. There
is plenty here to interest students from third grade up. This is an excellent book for your classroom
library. It would work as an in-class
text as well, though I am not aware of any elementary curriculum that divest
that deeply into the biology of a single creature.
Loux,
Matthew (2017) The Time Museum New York: First Second.
![Image result for The Time Museum](https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H/9781596438491.jpg)
Opening
Lines: Image of time travelers working
on building a machine outside of tier time travelling vessel/ Image of a
triceratops herd stampeding. Time traveler: I wonder if they know somehow…/ Man in
sunglasses and trenchcoat: Unless you
wish to remain and ask, I suggest you finish your work!
Delia is a science nerd. Her thorough report on the life cycle of the
dung beetle puts her class to sleep, including the teacher. When he best friend deserts her for a cooler
friend at the beginning of the summer and she finds out she and her family are
going to visit her eccentric uncle, she takes it in stride. When it turns out that her uncle s the
curator of the Earth Time Museum, that he is himself a time traveler form the
future, and that he is offering her a chance to do a summer internship with the
museum, she is overjoyed. When she finds
out that she will have to compete with other science students of the position,
and that most of them are from the future and seem to know much more than she
does, she is close to despairing. The
contests begin and she soon finds herself making decisions that may save the
museum or doom it.
This isn’t hard science and, in
fact, the reader will learn little about science at all from this graphic
novel, but a consistent theme throughout the book is that scientific thinking, passion
for science, and problem-solving ability
is more important than memorized facts, a concept that might be very encouraging
to some young science students.
There is nothing in this graphic novel
that reasonable parents would find objectionable. It would be best for fourth grade and up. It
is a lot of fun.
Benjamin,
Ali (2015) The Thing about Jellyfish: New
York: Little Brown.
![Image result for The Thing About Jellyfish](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WLo5tAs3L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Opening lines: “A jellyfish, if you
watch it long enough, begins to look like a heart beating. It doesn’t matter what kind: The Blood-red Atolla with its flashing siren
lights, the frilly flower hat variety, or the near transparent moon jelly,
Aurelia aurita. It’s their pulse, the
way they contract swiftly, then release.
Like a ghost heart—a heart you can see right through, right into some
other world where everything you ever lost has gone to hide.”
Suzy Swanson’s friend Franny Jackson
drowned a few months ago. Suzy is trying
to piece her life together. Jellyfish
may hold the key she thinks. That is
really all I can tell you. You are just
going to have to read it.
This book is a kind of exploration
of how a kid looks and the world and science.
It is also kind of a mystery story … and kind of a treatise on
friendship … and kind of a moving narrative about grief. It is a nerd story in
the best sense of the term. It is about
a kid who is different, persistent, and who cares about things that really
matter.
This
is a really good one. You should read
it. I t is about grief and so I suppose
a parent might object to it on the grounds that it is morbid – but I have not
heard of any such objections. It would
be best for fifth grade and up Check it
out.
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