Biology books for young people

BioScience reviews recent books on science and nature for young readers

BioScience, the flagship publication of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), announces its Fall Focus on Books, this year featuring over 40 children's biology titles. Six engaging articles, written by science educators, will be of special interest to K-12 educators, parents, and caregivers who seek an enjoyable learning experience for children interested in science and nature. Titles are grouped by topic—Botany, Oceanography, Climate Change, Evolution, Microbiology, and Entomology. The section, in the October issue of BioScience, is freely available online to the public as of 1 October 2008 at http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc&issn=0006-3568&volume=58&issue=9.

Maura Flannery, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at St. John's University in New York, begins the section with Plants and Invaders, in which she discusses nine botanical titles about cycles of growth, interconnectedness, and regeneration. Books about plants that cause damage to people or to native species are included. Flannery notes that plants have "gotten short shrift for ages" as topics for children's books—until now. Because concerns about global warming and energy supply have become hot topics, readers have found renewed appreciation for the plant world, both as a source of energy and as a sink for carbon dioxide.

Mysteries of the Deep, written by retired biology teacher Jean Worsley, focuses on books about oceans in relation to humans. Seven titles, for children ranging from ages two to twelve, are reviewed. Each book looks at an aspect of the ocean—as an ecosystem vital to global health and to the economy, as a world for exploration.

The section called Growing Up Green features seven titles, all with strong messages pertaining to water conservation, ocean pollution, rainforests and species protection, global warming, evidence of climate change, and activism. The issue of media bias is also mentioned. Teacher José Vázquez from New York University stresses the importance of environmental awareness in children of all ages and explains the crucial role that science books serve in educating and inspiring.

The broad-reaching fields of animal behavior, evolutionary biology, plant and animal adaptation, and geologic history are covered in Evolution and Adaptation for Young Scientists. A dozen titles are reviewed by Cate Hibbit, middle- and upper-school science teacher in Providence, Rhode Island.

Four titles plus a five-book series are reviewed by Elizabeth Emmert, Associate Professor of Biology at Salisbury University in Maryland. The article, Microbiology for Children: What Are They Learning? looks at what is available to children that offers insight into the "invisible living world." She asks, "How much experience do children have with the microbial world?" According to Emmert, not enough.

The section ends with A Sense of the Beautiful: Life Cycles and Insects. Weaving documented research with personal observation, doctoral candidate Leah Van Belle (Educational Studies, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor) makes clear what is essential to biology books that inspire children: visual elements that connect to both text and reader, and authors who convey excitement for their subject matter. Van Belle also notes that the use of trade books for augmenting a child's understanding of science has increased in popularity, both inside and out of the classroom.

###

BioScience, published 11 times per year, is the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). BioScience publishes commentary and peer-reviewed articles covering a wide range of biological fields, with a focus on "Organisms from Molecules to the Environment." The journal has been published since 1964. AIBS is an umbrella organization for professional scientific societies and organizations that are involved with biology. It represents some 200 member societies and organizations with a combined membership of about 250,000.