book suggestion help

vaw · 10-26-2009, 01:41 PM

Help please!

I thought I was good at finding new books - I get tons of requests for suggestions and borrowing from other parents and their kids. But I am stumped again.

My son LOVES science - and I mean loves.

He likes to read fiction books that contain true science (not science fiction books).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Some of the book series we have maxed out (waiting for the next to be written/published)

Andrew Lost (microsopic science)
Tom Swift Young Inventor
Secret Agent Jack Stalwart (global warming, geography, and not to mention cool invention gadgets)
Doyle and Fossey Science Detectives
An Awfully Beastly Business (caving, autopsies, etc)
The magic School Bus
Max Axiom

Anything out there that I have missed?
Reading level can be anything from 2nd to 6th or higher

Thanks in advance!

Thalia the Muse · 10-26-2009, 01:54 PM

The Twenty-One Balloons
George's Secret Key to the Universe and George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt
There's a whole series of Magic Schoolbus "chapter books," but they might be too easy for him

There's some science in Madeleine L'engle's Wrinkle in Time series, but there's also a whole lot of non-science. They're terrific books, though.

There's also the Mad Scientists' Club series, which I haven't read but are supposed to be pretty good. And Alvin Fernald books, from around the same time period.

vaw · 10-26-2009, 07:58 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I think you have made them before at my last cry for help, lol.

I haven't been able to locate the Mad Scientist Club books affordably. Our library system doest not have them. I might have suck it up and pay it.

George's Secret Key . . . We got that from the library and he felt it was too long to read, but the last scholastic flier, he asked to get it, so he might be willing to brave the book.
He prefers shorter books that can be read in a day. (150 pages or so)

We have all the Magic School Bus chapter books.

The Wrinkle in Time series he was not interested in at all.

I'll hunt for the Twenty One Balloons - I haven't heard of that one!

ollyoxenfree · 10-27-2009, 08:15 AM

How about The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster? It's a little longer than you are looking for, but it's very amusing. In addition to lots of math, there's a lot of funny wordplay too.

Or perhaps The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger.

They are both more math-y than science, but they are loaded with interesting information and insight.

Thalia the Muse · 10-27-2009, 11:19 AM

Quote:

I think you have made them before at my last cry for help

I probably did -- I'm kind of obsessed with kids' books!

philomom · 10-27-2009, 07:56 PM

My son loved these crazy books by Bruce Coville.

http://www.brucecoville.com/books.asp

mum2boys · 11-08-2009, 07:45 AM

My son LOVED these. They manage to combine fantasy fiction and science.

http://www.michaelreisman.com/index.php?page=books

**spalaura** · 11-10-2009, 10:17 AM

What about biographies of famous scientists? It may help him branch out into a new genre.