As you may or may not know, my mother teaches – among other things – grade 9 science at a local high-school. One of the tasks her students must complete is a “Science Portfolio” – a collection of newspaper articles with summaries indicating how they relate to subjects studied in class, as well as a similar summary for both a book and a movie. The units covered are:
- Electricity (& Magnetism),
- Biology,
- Chemistry,
- and Earth & Space.
I have been tasked with coming up with a list of potential books for the students to read, as many of them will not have been exposed to much literature yet. I ask that you read through this list and post – in the comments section – any books you think should be added.
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
- The Boat of a Million Years — Poul Anderson
- Foundation — Isaac Asimov
- Ender’s Game — Orson Scott Card
- 2001: A Space Odyssey — Arthur C. Clarke
- Rama — Arthur C. Clarke
- Sphere — Michael Crichton
- Do Androids Dream of electric Sheep? — Philip K. Dick
- Neuromancer — William H. Gibson
- Dune — Frank Herbert
- Brave New World &mbdash; Aldous Huxley
- Flowers for Algernon — Daniel Keyes
- The Hades Factor — Robert Ludlum
- The Ship Who Sang — Anne McCaffrey
- Pegasus in Flight — Anne McCaffrey
- Sould in the Great Machine — Sean McMullen
- Ringworld — Larry Niven
- Skunk Works — Ben R. Rich
- Red|Green|Blue Mars — Kim Stanley Robinson
- The Chrysalids — John Wyndham
I would add Flowers for Algernon to your list of sci-fi heavyweights. In addition, I’m intrigued by the idea of adding some science-themed, fictional books that aren’t necessarily “science fiction”. The problem is that I can’t think of any good examples off the top of my head. I’ll do some research and get back to you, though. Cool assignment!
Also, Brave New World. I know, I know, 1984 is better, but Brave New World is both more science-y and easier for Grade 9 students to get through.
Um, since I recently just re-discovered your blog, I might be a bit late coming to this party. Is your mom still looking for book ideas?
Yes! Throw ‘em up!
All right, here are some of my suggestions:
The Edge of Tomorrow by Isaac Asimov. It is a collection of short stories and essays about scientists (half fictional, half non-fiction). Most of them are quite engaging, and the fact that it is a short story collection should allow only a few to be selected to fill in gaps of time that aren’t enough to incorporate a full novel.
Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov. While it isn’t necessarily his best and is based on a premise that he himself thought was impossible, I suggest it because it is one of the few physiologically based science fiction novels I can think of, so for someone not interested in space it might offer an interesting alternative.
Lastly for the Asimov set, I know most things suggested so far have been fiction, but his non-fiction is some of the most lucid and interesting to read that I have ever come across. I therefore would suggest Atom or The Exploding Suns by him (solely because those are the two sitting on my shelf that I most recently read and I remember enjoying them both). I think they should be understandable to people in grade 9, but it is hard to say, so this might just be a tentative suggestion.
You did kind of already steal the series that sprang into my head - Rama. That is an extremely good series for what you are looking for (as well as being rather good in its own right).
Anyway, I need to get to work, so I’ll think some more and suggest some non-Asimov books later.
While not traditional science fiction at all, Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle (starting with Quicksilver) is fairly interesting about the history of science. It therefore has a lot to do with mathematics mainly, but could obliquely relate to any of the areas your mom is teaching.
I’ve never read the Martian Chronicles, but I liked Fahrenheit 451 so I looked up other stuff by Ray Bradbury and I’ve certainly heard of it.
I didn’t find it particularly great, but Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood adds a Canadian name to the list. I’m not sure if that’s really necessary, but our education systems seems to like to try and claim our country produces authors.
Also, a mainstream suggestion I got from polling other people is Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.
Oh, a friend of mine also suggested some of Robert A. Heinlein’s early stuff, though I’m not sure what of his to suggest since I’ve never actually read any of his works.
Also, I was thinking about it, and there are more Clarke and Asimov books that would be good, but you already have a lot of them, so I’ll avoid being a complete fan-boy and listing them off.