ECO- Fiction

ECO- Fiction Suggestions from the Class

HOOT Carl Hiaasen

Chomp Carl Hiaasen

Flush

Scat

Before You Knew Kindness  Chris Bohjalian

Water Witches

Into the Wild

Because of Winn Dixie

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

White Fang

Julie of the Wolves

Rascal

Old Yeller

Black Beauty

Shiloh

Out of the Deep

Cujo Stephen King

Charlotte’s Web

A Walk in the Woods

Bridge to Terebithia

The One and Only Ivan

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

World Without Fish Mark Kurlansky

Fauna Alisa York

Life in the Arctic
by Sheldon Brooks (2004)
Brooks defines the Arctic, and tells how life survives in this extreme environment.
Ages 9 – 12

Banks, Kate. Dillon Dillon. 2002. 160p.

Gr. 4–6. The summer that 10-year-old Dillon learns he is adopted, he becomes fascinated by a pair of loons that nests in one of his ­sneakers. When the birds are killed, he fears for the safety of their orphaned chick until another loon begins to raise the chick as its own.

Bauer, Marion Dane. Runt: A Novel. 2002.

Gr. 4–6. Runt, the smallest of his wolf litter, tries desperately to keep up with his siblings and prove himself to his father. This beautifully written book explains much about pack interactions in the wild.

Dowell, Frances O’Roark. Chicken Boy. 2005.

Gr. 5–8. When 12-year-old Tobin raises chickens for extra credit in science class, he finds the discipline needed to complete the project and gains insights that help him deal with the problems in his life.

George, Jean Craighead. Charlie’s Raven. 2004.

Gr. 4–7. Thirteen-year-old Charlie learns much from Blue Sky, a baby raven who imprints on the boy and serves as a source of interest and amazement to Charlie’s entire family. George, a noted naturalist in her own right, has written many books highlighting animal behavior, among them Frightful’s Mountain (Dutton, 1999), about a peregrine falcon, and There’s an Owl in the Shower (HarperCollins, 1995), about spotted owls.

George, Twig C. A Dolphin Named Bob. Illus. by Christine Herman Merrill. 1996.

Gr. 2–5. Bob, an Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin, overcomes many obstacles as he grows up at the Maryland State Aquarium. George intersperses information about dolphin behavior and about raising and training dolphins in captivity with Bob’s appealing antics, brought to life in Merrill’s black-and-white illustrations.

Greene, Stephanie. Owen Foote, Mighty Scientist. Illus. by Catharine Bowman Smith. 2004.

Gr. 2–4. Owen and his friend Joseph pair up for the third-grade science fair and attempt a project with Owen’s pet lizard that leads to disastrous results. Although humor rules the day in this Owen Foote series title, comments about the scientific method and the ethics of animal experimentation will prompt discussions.

Hobbs, Will. Jackie’s Wild Seattle. 2003.

Gr. 5–8. Fourteen-year-old Shannon and her younger brother, Cody, spend the summer with their uncle Neal, an ambulance driver for a wildlife rescue center near Seattle. A subplot involving Neal’s struggle with lymphoma is well handled.

Oppel, Kenneth. Silverwing. 1997.

Gr. 4–6. Shade, the runt of his Silverwing bat colony, becomes separated from the group during their annual winter migration, and, with the help of an exiled Brightwing bat, must find his colony and save them from a group of cannibal bats. Full of adventure, natural history, and bat lore, this book is followed by Sunwing (Simon & Schuster, 2000) and Fire­wing (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

Park, Linda Sue. Project Mulberry. 2005.

Gr. 4–6. Seventh-grader Julia Song isn’t interested in raising silkworms for her state fair project because she feels it is too Korean. However, the process of caring for the eggs, caterpillars, and moths; sewing the silk thread; and getting to know the neighbor who supplies the mulberry leaves that make her project possible changes her mind.

Smith, Greg Leitich. Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo. 2003.

Gr. 5–8. In this hilarious story, three best friends from a Chicago magnet school enter the science fair. One student tries to teach piranhas to prefer bananas, while the other two copy an experiment in which plants grow better when exposed to baroque music­—only to discover that the original results are wrong. The companion volume, Tofu and T. Rex (Little, Brown, 2005), features two cousins—one a militant vegan and the other a budding paleontologist—whose grandfather owns a butcher shop.

Staurt Little

The Last Battle  

Lorax

Spirit Animals

Little Fur