Books That Hook Middle-School Students on Subject Matter
In this helpful Middle School Journal article, Kent State University professor William Bintz suggests that certain books – he calls them “way-in” books – can grab students’ interest and engagement in topics that might seem boring. “They are tools for exploration,” he says, “a way to inquire – an opportunity to pose questions, arouse curiosities, and pursue anomalies about topics of unexpected interest that hopefully will capture their imagination.” Way-in books aren’t a substitute for actual content instruction, but they can create a far better learning climate if used skillfully.
Bintz has specific suggestions for middle-school teachers in all content areas. Here are excerpts from his selection:
English language arts
Inference:
- The Incredible Book Eating Boy (Jeffers, 2006)
- Beneath the Surface (Crew, 2005)
- The Watertower (Crew, 1999)
- The Collector of Moments (Buchholz, 1997)
- The Invention of Hugo (Selznick, 2007)
Persuasive arguments:
- Earrings (Voist, 1993)
- I Wanna Iguana (Orlof, 2004)
- Detective LaRue: Letters From the Investigation (Teague, 2004)
- The Perfect Pet (Palatini, 2003)
- Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School (Teague, 2002)
Social studies
Culture and cultural diversity:
- The Hello, Goodbye Window (Norton, 2005)
- First Day in Grapes (Perez, 2002)
- The Pot That Juan Built (Andrews-Coebel, 2002)
- Uptown (Collier, 2004)
- Amelia’s Road (Altman, 1993)
Individuals, groups, and institutions:
- Benjamin Banneker: Pioneering Scientist (Wadsworth, 2003)
- Molly Bannaky (McGill, 1999)
- Immigrant Kids (Freedman, 1980)
Mathematics
Patterns, relations, and functions:
- The Warlord’s Puppeteer (Pilgard, 2003)
- Patterns in Peru (Neuschwander, 2007)
- Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone (Neuschwander, 2003)
- If You Hopped Like a Frog (Schwartz, 1999)
- Spaghetti and Meatballs for All (Burns, 1997)
Geometric shapes:
- The Greedy Triangle (Burns, 1994)
- Mummy Math (Neuschwander, 2005)
- What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras? A Math Adventure (Ellis, 2004)
- Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland (Neuschwander, 2001)
- Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi (Neuschwander, 1999)
- Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (Neuschwander, 1997)
- The Librarian Who Measured the Earth (Lasky, 1997)
- The Fly on the Ceiling (Glass, 1998)
Numbers and operations:
- Beanstalk: Measure of a Giant (McCallum, 2006)
- If Dogs Were Dinosaurs (Schwartz, 2005)
- Polar Bear Math (Nagda and Bickel, 2004)
- The Warlord’s Puppeteers (Pilgard, 2003)
- A Place for Zero (Lopresti, 2003)
- One Riddle, One Answer (Thompson, 2001)
- Inchworm and a Half (Pinczes, 2001)
Measurement:
- How Tall, How Short, How Far Away (Adler, 2000)
- Greater Estimations (Goldstone, 2008)
- Great Estimations (Goldstone, 2006)
- Measuring Penny (Leedy, 2000)
- How Big Is a Foot? (Myller, 1991)
Science
Experimental and observational inquiry:
- Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas (Bardoe, 2006)
- What’s the Matter in Mr. Whiskers’ Room? (Ross, 2007)
- Science Verse (Scieszka and Smith, 2004)
- Mr. Archimedes’ Bath (Allen, 1998)
- June 29, 1999 (Weisner, 1995)
Observational inquiry and the scientific method:
- Snowflake Bentley (Martin, 1998)
- Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson (Erhlich, 2008)
- Galileo’s Journal (Pettenati, 2006)
- The Tarantula Scientist (Montgomery, 2004)
- The Man Who Made Time Travel (Lasky, 2003)
- Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer (Byrd, 2003)
Physics and Chemistry:
- A Drop of Water (Wick, 1997)
- Where Does Electricity Come From? (Mayes, 2006)
- Forces Make Things Move (Bradley, 205)
- The Island That Moved (Hooper, 2004)
- How Do You Lift a Lion? (Wells, 1996)
- Why Can’t You Unscramble an Egg? (Cobb, 1990)
- Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up? (Cobb, 1988)
Living systems and life sciences:
- The Way We Work (Macaulay, 2008)
- Alive: The Living, Breathing Human Body Book (DK Publishing, 2007)
- What a Family! (Isadora, 2006)
- Have a Nice DNA (Balkwill, 2002)
- Amazing Schemes Within Your Genes (Balkwill, 1993)
- The Facts of Life: A Drop of Blood (Showers, 1989)
Earth and space science:
- Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights (Miller, 2003)
- The Incredible Water Show (Frasier, 2004)
- Mountain Dance (Locker, 2001)
- On the Same Day in March (Singer, 2000)
- Cloud Dance (Locker, 2000)
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