The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

Science title for high school.

Bibliographic Information: Watson, James. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. New York: Scribner, 1968.

Plot Description:
This book shows James as he definitively discovers the structure of DNA, the molecule of life. There is a little backstory on how he came to this point in his life. He introduces his teammates, especially Francis Crick. He describes the thrill of working against other gifted scientists and the bitter rivalries, as with Linus Pauling, that resulted. In the epilogue, he says that all of the members of the team may remember details differently, but acknowledges that Rosalind Franklin was a much better scientist and human than he initially thought.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile: 1220

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
James, in his mid-twenties, writes in the first person language of a scientist. His sentences are fifteen to twenty words, usually, and often use language that need context to understand. Some key phrases are repeated often (helical, cytosine, etc.) and are understood without context by the end of the book.

Content Area: Science-Biology

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for 6-12: #2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms; #4  Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context; #5 Analyze how the text structures information or ideas into categories or hierarchies, demonstrating understanding of the information or ideas; #9 Synthesize information from a range of sources; #10 Read and comprehend science/technical texts in appropriate grades.
• CCSS for Writing for 6-12: #9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• CCSS for Language 6-12: #3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening; #4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a fascinating science book, and should be used in conjunction with a biology lesson teaching about DNA. It is best suited to 9th grade and above. It is a surprisingly honest account of discovery. It should be read with other accounts by the scientists who James worked with, due to the controversy over his general exclusion of Rosalind Franklin.

Sea Horses Picture Book For Kids

One Science picture book

Bibliographic Information: Jacobs, Emma. Sea Horses Picture Book For Kids. Austin, TX: A Reading Place, 2013.

Plot Description:
This picture book has large photographs of seahorses in their native environment. It takes the reader through their appearance, their homes, their food, their predators, their babies (and how the males carry the young), and their lifespan. It also gives details on various species: lined seahorses, pot-bellied seahorses, dwarf seahorses, and sea dragons.

Quantitative Reading Level: Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 84.7

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
This book has a mild amount of technical terms, but most sentences are easily understandable by an elementary school student. Sentences have an average of twelve words; words average two syllables. This is an engaging book.

Content Area: Science-Life Science, Marine Biology

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for K-5: #1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers; #4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text; #7 Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a good introduction to seahorses, which are always popular with elementary school students. It is best suited to 3rd through 5th grade. It has many useable facts for a “My First Animal” report.

How Big Is A Foot?

One Math picture book

Bibliographic Information: Myller, Rolf. How Big Is A Foot? New York: Yearling, 1962.

Plot Description:
A King and Queen were happy. The Queen’s birthday was approaching, so the King decided he would give her a bed. He asked the Prime Minister, sho asked the Chief Carpenter, who told his apprentice to make a bed. But they all passed a question back up: How big is a bed? The King asked the Queen to lay down, and he walked, barefoot, around her, determining that the bed should be three feet wide and six feet long. This measurement was passed back down to the small apprentice, who measured using his own feet. The bed was not big enough for the Queen, and the apprentice was thrown in jail. He thought and realized that the King’s feet were bigger than his; if he knew the size of the King’s foot, he could make a bed for the Queen. The King had a stone copy of one foot made. The apprentice made a new bed, and it fit the Queen perfectly. Thereafter, anyone who wanted to measure anything used a copy of the King’s foot.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile: 660; Accelerated Reader: 4.0

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
The language was very simple and very repetitive. The word “apprentice” is the most complicated word in this story. Sometimes an entire page was one sentence, but kids will easily fall into the rhythm of “…told the Prime Minister, who told the Chief Carpenter, who…”

Content Area: Math-Measurement

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for K-5: #1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.; #7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot; #10 Read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, at appropriate grade level.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a cute picture book to use as a way to teach measurement. It is best suited to 3rd grade and below. It can help kids learn both how measurements are set, and relative measuring.

President Taft Is Stuck in the Bath

One picture book on a historical topic

Bibliographic Information: Barnett, Mac. President Taft Is Stuck in the Bath. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 1967.

Plot Description:
William Taft was the 27th president of the United States. One day, he was stuck in his bathtub. He wiggled, but couldn’t get out. Hours passed and he was still stuck. His wife discovered that he was in the bathroom, and he pretended that he wasn’t actually stuck; then he admitted it. She brought the vice president for him, who is prepared to become president in his stead. More advisors are brought in; a diet is proposed, or butter to grease him up to get him out, or blowing up the bath with dynamyte. As more ridiculous solutions are proposed, his wife keeps being cut off. Eventually she was able to suggest everyone in the room just yank him out of the bath, and it finally worked.

Quantitative Reading Level: Accelerated Reader: 3.2

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
The story uses short sentences well. The alliterations were great. The illustrations on each page had full-color and helped tell the story when there were only very small sentences on the page. The book was a short read, but very amusing.

Content Area: Social Science, US Presidents

Content Area Standard:
•    CCSS for Reading for K-5: #3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details; #4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses; #7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events; #10 With prompting and support, read prose and poetry at appropriate grade level.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a fun book to use as part of a around President’s Day. It is best suited to 3rd grade and below. It also introduces many officers of the White House, and their solutions involve their jobs at a level elementary school students can understand.

The Diary of a Young Girl

One non-fiction historical work (memoir or narrative non-fiction)

Bibliographic Information: Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Doubleday, 1967.

Plot Description:
Anne Frank has a pretty typical girlhood, until the persecution of Jewish people began. Her family fled Germany to the Netherlands. When Germany invaded the Netherlands, the Franks were forced into hiding with another family. They pay attention to the war by listening to the radio. Anne writes her thoughts about the war in her diary. The news affects the mood of the adults; Amsterdam as a whole is suffering.  Anne writes about her feelings of isolation, and about the volatile relationships she has with the adults in hiding. Her entries become deeper and more philosophical as she matures before her time, finding it difficult to understand why the Jewish people are being persecuted. The diary abruptly ends, because they are betrayed to the Nazis and arrested. Her father was the only survivor, and published Anne’s diary according to her wishes.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile: 1080; Accelerated Reader: 6.5

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
Anne writes very properly for a young teenager, and decides that her diary is her friend, whom she names Kitty. The sentence structure is mid-level, and most of the words are one- or two-syllable. Nevertheless, her tale is tragically enthralling.

Content Area: Social Science, World History-World War II, Autobiography

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for 6-12: #2 Determine theme or central idea and analyze in detail its development; #3 Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain; #4 Analyze complex characters; #5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole; #9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources; #10 Read and comprehend literature in grade level text complexity range.
• CCSS for Writing for 6-12: #9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• CCSS for Language 6-12:  #3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening; #5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuance in word meanings, such as interpret figures of speech.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a powerful autobiography to use as part of a core English Language Arts Curriculum. It is best suited to 6th grade and above, with mild profanity. It explores themes like the loneliness of adolescence, the inward versus outward self, and the generosity and greed that happens in wartime.

The Great Gatsby

One historical fiction novel (chapter book, middle or high school)

Bibliographic Information: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925.

Plot Description:
Nick Carraway rents a house in New York, next to the mansion of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a millionaire who throws parties but doesn’t participate in them. Nick visits his cousin Daisy and her husband, and meets Jordan, with whom he becomes romantically involved. She tells Nick that Tom has a mistress. Nick is invited to a party at Gatsby’s mansion, and he and Jordan meet Gatsby himself. Gatsby had been romantically involved with Daisy and is in love with her; he throws these parties in the hopes that she will come to one. Nick invites both Daisy and Gatsby over, and they reestablish their relationship. Tom becomes suspicious and then enraged at his wife’s infidelity, ignoring his own affair. He drives everyone to NYC, where Gatsby is at a hotel, for the confrontation. Daisy decides her place is with Tom. Tom sends Daisy back to their town with Gatsby, in a show that Gatsby doesn’t threaten him. Soon after, Nick, Jordan, and Tom encounter a car crash: Gatsby’s car hit and killed Tom’s mistress. Daisy had been driving, but Gatsby intends to take the blame. The mistress’ husband thinks that the driver of the car is the person with whom his wife had been havig an affair, and tracks Gatsby to his home. He shoots and kills Gatsby, and then himself. Nick moves back to his hometown, thoroughly disillusioned.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile: 820; Accelerated Reader: 7.3

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
This is written in the first-person perspective of Nick, a man twenty to thirty years old. It is written in the manner of the upper class- very proper with high vocabulary. Paragraphs vary in length, often containing five sentences.

Content Area: Social Science, US History-Roaring 20’s

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for 6-12: #2 Determine theme or central idea and analyze in detail its development; #3 Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain; #4 Analyze complex characters; #5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.; #10 Read and comprehend literature in grade level text complexity range.
• CCSS for Writing for 6-12: #9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• CCSS for Language 6-12:  #3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening; #4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases; #5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuance in word meanings, such as interpret figures of speech.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a classic historical fiction novel to use as part of a core English Language Arts Curriculum. It is best suited to 9th grade and above, due to violence. It explores themes like the decline of the American Dream and the hollowness of the upper class.

Falling Up

One poetry for youth for K-5 students

I would first like to point out that I chose this book before looking at the examplar. It is one of my favorites, and I still have the bookmarks in it from when I was ten.

Bibliographic Information: Silverstein, Shel. Falling Up. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

Plot Description:
In the eponymous poem of this collection, the protagonist trips on his shoelace and, defying all physics, falls up. Far over his hometown, over mountains, and into the sky. He becomes dizzy, and throws down. Other poems in this book involve looking upside down and seeing the world from a new perspective, a twist on cooking the golden goose, numbers that have homophones, and painting with lunch. Poems are often combined with illustrations, for hilarious effect.

Quantitative Reading Level: Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 89.1

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
Despite the apparent frivolity in his poetry, Silverstein gives pertinant advice to readers of every age- like accepting for yourself what is right or wrong, the importance of doing instead of woulda-coulda-shoulda been doing, and the perils of hoarding. Most words have two syllables, and most of the poems internally rhyme in some manner. This book makes poetry fun.

Content Area: English, Poetry

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for K-5: #2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; #3 Identify characters, settings, and major events in a story; #4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes; #7 Describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear; #10 Read and comprehend literature in appropriate grade level.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a great book of poetry to use as independent reading. It is best suited to 5th grade and below. This book can be a model for poetry assignments, and on how to cleverly illustrate a children’s book.

The Fault in Our Stars

One Classic/Contemporary Novel pairing for middle school or high school

Bibliographic Information: Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books, 2012.

Plot Description:
Hazel Lancaster, a teenager with terminal cancer, attends a cancer patients’ support group and befriends Augustus, who lost his leg to cancer. They agree to read each other’s favorite books. Augustus does not like that the book he read ends abruptly, and begins corresponding with the author and tells Hazel. They have questions, but the author will only answer them in person. Augustus gets tickets to meet the author, who lives in Amsterdam, but Hazel’s family is reluctant to let her go. She realizes she loves Augustus, and fears hurting him with her death. In Amsterdam, Augustus confesses his love for Hazel. The meet the author, who turns out to be a very mean drunkard; his assistant was the one they were actually corresponding with. Hazel and Augustus visit the Anne Frank House; she struggles with the stairs, and they share a kiss at the end of the tour. They make love. Augustus confesses that his cancer has relapsed. They affirm their love. The author attends Augustus’ funeral, trying to make up for his previous behavior. Hazel later learns that Augustus might have been writing a sequel to the story for her; he’d sent the pages of his story to the author, for him to make a well-composed eulogy for Hazel, his final goodbye.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile: 850; Accelerated Reader: 5.5

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
This book is written in first-person from Hazel’s perspective, with the expected vocabulary of a teenage girl. The author writes differently in various parts; some parts read like a diary, some like a conversation out loud, and others like a script. Those differences may be distracting to some readers who are not used to works formatted in this manner.

Content Area: English, Diseases/Disorders-Cancer

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for 6-12: #2 Determine theme or central idea and analyze in detail its development; #3 Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain; #4 Analyze complex characters; #6 Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience; #10 Read and comprehend literature in grade level text complexity range.
• CCSS for Writing for 6-12: #9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• CCSS for Language 6-12: #3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening; #4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases; #5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuance in word meanings, such as interpret figures of speech.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a great contemporary book to use as part of a core English Language Arts Curriculum. It is best suited to 9th grade and above. Pair this book with The Odyssey, as they both explore themes of journey and gaining the courage to face your destiny. It also explores themes like the power of cunning over strength and the pitfalls of temptation.

The Odyssey

One Classic/Contemporary Novel pairing for middle school or high school

Bibliographic Information: Homer. Translator Butler, Samuel. The Odyssey. New York: Digireads.com, 2009. Print.

Plot Description:
After the fall of Troy, the Greek hero Odysseus has not returned to his kingdom. Many suitors court his wife, Penelope, who does not accept any of them. Their son, Telemachus, wants to throw the suitors out, but is unable. Odysseus, meanwhile, is imprisoned by the nymph Calypso. On the advice of the goddess Athena, Telemachus travels to his father’s war companions, who tell him Odysseus is alive.  The suitors plan to kill Telemachus when he returns, however.  Zeus sends Hermes to rescue Odysseus from Calypso, and Odysseus builds a ship. Poseidon bears a grudge against him and sends a storm to wreck him. He lands in a friendly zone, whose people plead to hear stories of his adventures in return for safe passage home. He makes it back to his kingdom in disguise and is belittled by the suitors. Penelope, thinking she recognizes him, declares she will marry whoever can string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axes. Odysseus wins, naturally, and he and Telemachus kill the suitors. He reunites with his wife.

Quantitative Reading Level: Lexile: 1050; Accelerated Reader: 10.3

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
The word level of this book tends to vary between basic and complex; often sentences have many one- or two-syllable words, with several complex multisyllabic words. It is mostly written in conversation, and the rest in narrated description. That is to say, the characters speak to the audience, as does the narrator, instead of events being described passively. What appears to be paragraphs upon first inspection, often are convoluted run-on sentences.

Content Area: English, Folklore/Mythology

Content Area Standard:

• CCSS for Reading for 6-12:  #1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole; #2 Determine theme or central idea and analyze in detail its development; #4 Analyze complex characters; #6 Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience; #10 Read and comprehend literature in grade level text complexity range.
• CCSS for Writing for 6-12: #9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• CCSS for Language 6-12:  #3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening; #4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases; #5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuance in word meanings, such as interpret figures of speech.

Curriculum suggestions:
This is a great classic book to use as part of a core English Language Arts Curriculum. It is best suited to 10th grade and above. Pair this book with The Fault in Our Stars, as they both explore themes of journey and gaining the courage to face your destiny.