Elementary Students (or possibly middle school):
LRFO = Let’s Read and Find Out early readers
Links that are crossed out are “broken links,” however, I have found that most of them actually do work if you click on them.
- The Science of Classification: Finding Order Among Living and Nonliving Objects by Martin J. Gutnik
- Greg’s Microscope by Millicent Selsam
- The Microscope by Maxine Kumin
- Benny’s Animals and How He Put Them in Order by Millicent Selsam
- Seeds and Seed Travels by Olive L. Earle
- Seeds and More Seeds by Millicent Selsam
- A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston (PB)
- Eat the Fruit, Plant the Seed by Millicent Selsam
- A First Look at Flowers by Millicent Selsam
- The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cythia Rylant (PB)
- The Secrets of Animal Flight by Nic Bishop (31 pp.)
- A Pair of Wings by Marilyn Singer (PB)
- Animal Homes by Sally Cartwright (46 pp.)
- It Couldn’t Just Happen by Lawrence Richards
- Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring The Earth To Life by Molly Bang
MS and HS Botany:
- Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; From Seed to Leaf by Jane H. Newell used in conjunction with How Plants Grow by Asa Gray OR First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology by Asa Gray (but this link is not the revised edition referenced in Outlines of Lessons in Botany)
- Elementary Studies in Plant Life by F.E. Fritsch (PNEU assigned to Form IV, gr.9-10)
- The Study of Plant Life by H. C. Stopes (PNEU assigned to Form III, gr. 7-8)
- First Studies of Plant Life by George Francis Atkinson (archive)
- The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
- Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Briony Morrow-Cribbs (236 pp.)
- Luther Burbank: Plant Magician by John Beaty (251 pp., Messner Biography)
- The Clover & the Bee: A Book of Pollination by Anne Ophelia Dowden (90 pp.)
- The Secret Life of the Flowers by Anne Ophelia Dowden (96 pp.)
- Leaves: their amazing by lives and strange behavior by James Poling (103 pp., *I love this!)
- This Green World by Rutherford Platt
- The Botany Coloring Book by Paul Young
- Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification by Thomas J. Elpel *not narrative, but could be a good guide.
- The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature by Philip Ball (456 pp.)
- Look at a Flower by Anne Ophelia T. Dowden (120 pp.)
- How Did We Find Out about Photosynthesis? by Isaac Asimov
- The Vital Process: Photosynthesis by Jeffrey Baker (61 pp. fantastic)
MS and HS Biology
General or History
- Men, Microscopes and Living Things by Katherine Shippen (OpenLibrary.org) *A must for any age, and the only survey of biology listed.
- The Mighty Human Cell by Patricia Kelly (112 pp.)
- Life Itself: Exploring the Realm of the Living Cell by Boyce Rensberger (304 pp., ~gr. 11)
- The Way Life Works: The Science Lover’s Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops, Reproduces, and Gets Along by Mahlon Hoagland (expensive)
- 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks
- Energy, Plants and Man by David Walker
Experiments
- Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments by Thompson & Thompson – forensic science procedures
- How to Dissect by William Berman (This looks so great!)
Biology – Virus, Bacteria, Microscopic
- Microbe Hunters by Paul deKruif (372 pp.)
- Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules by Philip Ball
- Hunting with the Microscope by Gaylord Johnson
- Adventures with a Microscope by Richard Headstrom
- Life Under the Microscope by William Hutchinson
- Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World by C.J. Peters
- The Vitamin Pioneers by Herbert Bailey
- A Field Guide to Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer
- Marvels of Pond Life by Henry J. Slack
- Pond Life by George Reid (reference style)
- Microbes At Work by Millicent Selsam
Anatomy/Medicine
- see my anatomy and medicine page
Genetics
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (I recommend this for year 12)
- The Impact of the Gene: From Mendel’s Peas to Designer Babies by Colin Tudge
- Life is a Blessing: A Biography of Jerome Lejeune–Geneticist, Doctor, Father by Clara Lejeune
- How Heredity Works by Jeanne Bendick
- The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson (256 p. In his book DNA: The Secret of Life this author belittles Christians throughout, but I don’t know his attitude in this one.)
Health
- Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Philip Yancey (224 pp)
Evolution
- Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe (352 pp.)
- The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel *Possibly just select chapters? or use the kids version
- Not By Chance by Dr. Lee Spetner
- Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
- The Voyage of the Beagle, abridged and edited by Millicent Selsam
- The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
- We Were There with Charles Darwin on the H.M.S. Beagle by Philip Eisenberg
- Around the World With Darwin by Millicent Selsam
Extinction/Endangerment
- Last of the Wild: Vanished and Vanishing Giants of the Animal World by Robert McClung, 1997 (269 p.)
- Lost Wild America: The Story of Our Extinct and Vanishing Wildlife by Robert McClung, 1993 (258 p.)
Ecosystems/Environment
- The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono (74 pp.)
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
- A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
- Trashing the Planet by Dixy Lee Ray
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
- Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
- The Everglades: River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Florida)
- A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith (Florida)
- Wild New York: A Guide to the Wildlife, Wild Places and Natural Phenomena of New York City by Margaret Mittelbach (New York)
- World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky (IP, gr. 5-12, 208 p.)
- something from tundra, forests, grassland, desert
Biology – Biographies
- William Harvey and the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood by Thomas Henry Huxley
- Louis Pasteur by Laura Wood
- Louis Pasteur: Fighting Hero of Science by Grant Madeleine
- Louis Pasteur: Founder of Microbiology by Mary June Burton
- The Insect Man by Eleanor Doorly (Fabre)
- Beloved Botanist: The Story of Carl Linnaeus by Adrien Stoutenburg (192 pp.)
- Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics by Simon Mawer (176 pp.)
- Monk in the Garden by Robin Henig (Gregor Mendel, 304 p.)
- The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe (Gregor Mendel, PB)
- The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin (488 pp.)
- Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal and Letters by Alice B. McGinty *Great picture book. (48 pp.)
- Dr. George Washington Carver by Shirley Graham and George Lipscomb *very good (248 pp.)
- Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick
- Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Discovery of the Smallpox Vaccine by Albert Marrin *very good recommendation on this
- Naturalist’s Apprentice series (all approximately grade level 4-6 and 48 pages):
- Wildlife Watching with Charles Eastman by Michael Elsohn Ross
- Bird Watching with Margaret Morse Nice by Michael Elsohn Ross
- Bug Watching with Charles Henry Turner
- Pond Watching with Ann Morgan by Micheal Elsohn Ross
- Flower Watching with Alice Eastwood by Michael Elsohn Ross
- Fish Watching with Eugenie Clark by Michael Elsohn Ross
- Lady With a Spear by Eugenie Clark (fish)
- Nature Art with Chiura Obata by Micheal Elsohn Ross
Check out Biblioguides, which now offers an SMH partner guide. They provide a list of all of the books on SMH, but with added information, including (when available) images of the book’s cover, a complete description, a look inside, and links to available digital versions. Also, with advanced search capabilities, you can find books that meet your qualifications. “Biblioguides gives you the resources and tools to discover the right book for the right person at the right moment.” They offer a free trial, so do check it out.