Science Rocks! Books about All Sorts of Science

Science is great for so many reasons. It answers questions. It creates questions. It comes up with cool things to observe and think about. Sometimes, it just stops you in your tracks with amazingness. And it is at the base of all this week's and next week's books.

A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long

I like this book for so many reasons. It’s all about rocks, a fascinating topic, I think. The pictures are fantastic, showing all the colors and textures of rocks. The information is clearly presented in easy chunks. And the ideas are neat: A rock is lively. A rock is mixed up. A rock is creative…

First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

First the egg then the chicken. Cause and effect is all around us. As I read this book the first time, I tried to guess all the cause and effect pairs. Some are not too hard (tadpole-frog) but some downright unguessable (at least for me). I love everything about this book – its simplicity, its cut-out pages and its cleverness.

How We Learned the Earth Is Round by Patricia Lauber, illustrated by Megan Lloyd

It’s not too surprising that early people thought Earth was flat. If you look across a field or ocean, it certainly looks flat. But then people wondered about why ships seemed to sink as they sailed away, instead of just getting smaller and smaller. This book tells about how people used their observations to come to the conclusion that Earth is round.

Hello! Hello! by Matthew Cordell

A girl is bored with her electronics. She tries to get her family’s attention but they are distracted by their electronics. She goes outside and Whoa! there is a whole WORLD of interesting things. This book makes me smile.

 Metamorphosis: Changing Bodies by Bobbie Kalman

Metamorphosis is one of those things that just proves that life is very cool. Such changes! This book shows the stages of life of a butterfly, a frog, a dragonfly, and a grasshopper. Great pictures!

The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery by Sandra Markle (sorry, no link)

If you want to learn about scientific process, this is a terrific book to read. It closely follows scientist Karen Lips as she works to figure out why the golden frogs of Panama are vanishing. She looks at many possible sources – pollution, climate change and others. Although there is a lot of text here, it is written clearly. And there are also lots of pictures. I look forward to reading more of Sandra Markle’s books.

Ocean Sunlight by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm

This book is a marvel. It takes complex subjects – photosynthesis, the food chain, phytoplankton, marine snow (this one was news to me!) and lots of other stuff and makes them crystal clear. And it’s perfectly illustrated. There are other sunlight books by Molly Bang I look forward to reading:
My Light

Living Sunlight

Of course, I can't stop here - next week there will be more amazing science books!

Gail