Get Out and Learn: Science Museums and Other Learning Opportunities:

Liberty Science Center Jersey City, NJ

The Franklin Institute Philadelphia, PA

Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia, PA

Mutter Museum, The College of Physicians, Philadelphia, PA

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Princeton, NJ

American Museum of Natural History New York, NYNew York Hall of Science Queens, NYSony Wonder Tech Lab New York, NY

All titles are owned by the SBHS Library, please note the call number at the beginning of each entry.

Readable Non-Fiction on Science Topics:

BIO DAR - Heiligman, Deborah. Charles and Emma: the Darwins' leap of faith.

Provides an account of Charles Darwin's life and evolutionary theory, examining how his personal life affected his work and vice versa because of his wife's strong religious beliefs.

598.072 HOO - Hoose, Philip. Moonbird: a year in the wind with the great survivor B95.

Chronicles a year in the life of rufa red knot B95, also called Moonbird, following him through his migration pattern and discussing the environmental problems that caused the rufa population to collapsed by nearly eighty percent.

598.7 HOO - Hoose, Philip. The race to save the Lord God Bird.

Tells the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker's extinction in the United States, describing the encounters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us about preserving endangered creatures.

623.4 SHE - Sheinkin, Steve. Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon.

Examines the history of the atomic bomb, discussing the discovery of the behavior of uranium when placed next to radioactive material, the race to build a bomb, and the impact of the weapon on societies around the world.

612.3 ROA - Roach, Mary. Gulp: Adventures in the alimentary canal.

Examines the alimentary canal and the digestive system, answering such questions as, can constipation kill a person, why the stomach doesn't digest itself, how much can be eaten before the stomach bursts, and more.

571 ROA - Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: the curious science of life in the void.

Explores space travel and answers a number of curious questions about what life would be like without gravity.

611 ROA - Roach, Mary. Stiff: The curious life of human cadavers.

Explores how human cadavers have been used throughout history, discussing how the use of dead bodies has benefited every aspect of human existence.

614 WAL - Walker, Sally M. Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Finalist for YALSA’s 2010 Excellence in Nonfiction Award

Takes readers through the process of investigating human remains found at colonial-era sites to reveal causes of death, match remains with the names on the historical records, and determine the skeletons' gender, age at death, nationality, and even economic standing.

YA Fiction with Connections to Science Topics:

FIC ADA - Adams, Douglas, The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

Seconds before Earth is demolished to make room for a galactic freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend. Together they journey through the galaxy.

FIC AND - Anderson, M.T. Feed.

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

FIC ASI - Asimov, Isaac, I Robot.

Dr. Susan Calvin, the first great practitioner of the new science of robopsychology in 2008, looks back on her career with U.S. Robotics on the occasion of her retirement fifty years later, telling stories of how the mechanical race developed.

FIC ASI - Asimov, Isacc, Foundation.

A band of psychologists, under the leadership of psychohistorian Hari Seldon, plants a colony to encourage art, science, and technology in the declining Galactic Empire and to preserve the accumulated knowledge of humankind.

FIC AUG - Augarde, Steve. X Isle.

After they are granted coveted places on an island in a future world devastated by flooding, Baz and Ray discover that their new home is ruled by an unpredictable religious fanatic and they plan a dangerous rebellion against him. 

FIC BAC - Bachorz, Pam, Drought.

Ruby's blood holds the secret to the Water that keeps her and her fellow Congregants alive and enriches Darwin West, who has enslaved them for two centuries, but when her romance with an Overseer, Ford, brings her freedom in the modern world, she faces a terrible choice.

FIC BAC - Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker. Winner of the 2011 Printz Award, 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults 

In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

FIC BAC - Bacigalupi, Paolo. Drowned Cities. (Companion book to Ship Breaker.)

In a dark future America that has devolved into unending civil wars, orphans Mahlia and Mouse barely escape the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities, but their fragile safety is soon threatened and Mahlia will have to risk everything if she is to save Mouse, as he once saved her.

FIC BEA - Beaudoin, Sean, Fade to blue.

Eighteen-year-old Goth Sophie Blue, sensing that something is awry in her small town, begins to piece together the connections between her missing father, a scientific researcher at a local laboratory, and her high school's football star, Kenny.

FIC BEC - Bechard, Margaret. Spacer and rat.

Jack's predictable existence on Freedom space station is transformed when Kit, the Earthie rat, enters his life and enlists him and a sensitive robot in an effort to outwit the Company.

FIC BEN - Benford, Gregory. Cosm.

Physicist Alicia Butterworth accidently makes one of the most significant breakthroughs in history when a failed experiment leads to the creation of a new universe.

FIC BIC - Bick, Ilsa J., Ashes.

Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.

FIC BRA - Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles.

Chronicles the early attempts by humans to colonize an inhabited Mars by transforming the Red planet into a mirror image of the world they left behind.

FIC BRA - Brande, Robin. Fat Cat. 

Overweight teenage Catherine embarks on a high school science project in which she must emulate the ways of hominims, the earliest ancestors of human beings, by eating an all-natural diet and foregoing technology.

FIC CAR - Carter, Rachel. So close to you. 

After growing up with stories of the Montauk Project an abandoned military base where secret experiments were conducted, Lydia Bentley finds herself transported into a strange and new reality, where she pairs up with a mysterious boy and learns that all the stories were true.

FIC CHE - Chevalier. Remarkable Creatures. 

Marked for greatness after being struck by lightning in infancy, Mary Anning discovers a fossilized skeleton near her 19th century home that triggers attacks on her character and upheavals throughout the religious, scientific, and academic communities.

FIC CHI - Chibbaro, Julie. Deadly. 

In the early nineteen hundreds, Prudence Galewski takes a job assisting the head epidemiologist at New York's Department of Health and Sanitation, investigating the case of "Typhoid Mary," a woman who is infecting others with typhoid fever.

FIC CLA - Clarke, Arthur Charles. 3001:the final odyssey. 

The body of Frank Poole, murdered by mad computer HAL a thousand years earlier, is found and revived to a world of peace and plenty, but in his attempts to understand the entity composed of his former deputy Dave Bowman and a copy of the now-sane HAL, Frank learns that Earth is slated for destruction.

FIC CLA - Clarke, Arthur Charles. The trigger. 

Dr. Jeffrey Horton becomes caught up in a web of deceit and politics when he invents a device that is capable of rendering guns and bombs virtually harmless.

FIC COR - Cordy, Michael. The miracle strain: a genetic thriller. 

"Famed geneticist Dr. Tom Carter's worst nightmares come true when his wife is slain by an assassin's bullet and his nine-year-old daughter is diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. Carter now needs a miracle to save his little girl; and one is waiting for him in a cave in the Middle East...and in the guarded DNA of the greatest healer in history." Provided by publisher.

FIC CRI - Crichton, Michael. The Andromeda strain. 

"The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere." Provided by publisher.

FIC CRO - Crossan, Sarah. Breathe.

"In a barren land, a shimmering glass dome houses the survivors of the Switch, the period when oxygen levels plunged and the green world withered. A state lottery meant a lucky few won safety, while the rest suffocated in the thin air. And now Alina, Quinn, and Bea--an unlikely trio, each with their own agendas, their own longings and fears--walk straight into the heart of danger. With two days' worth of oxygen in their tanks, they leave the dome. What will happen on the third day?"--Provided by publisher.

FIC DAS - Dashner, James. The Maze Runner.

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

FIC DES - DeStefano, Lauren. Wither.

After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

FIC FAR - Farmer, Nancy. The house of scorpion. 

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

FIC FER - Ferguson, Alane. The dying breath: a forensic mystery.

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

FIC FRA - Franklin, Emily and Brendan Halpin. The half-life of planets.

An unlikely romance develops between a science-minded girl who is determined to reclaim her reputation and a boy with Asperger's Syndrome.

FIC GRA - Grant, Michael and Katherine Applegate. Eve & Adam.

With the help of her geneticist mother at Spiker Biotech Laboratory, sixteen-year-old Eve Spiker recovers incredibly quickly from the life-threatening injuries she suffered during an accident, and upon becoming friends with handsome teenage lab assistant Solo, the two make discoveries about the what is really going on at the laboratory.

FIC HAD - Haddix, Margaret Peterson, Turnabout.

Melly and Anny Beth agree to participate in Project Turnabout, a scientific experiment in which they are given a shot that will make them grow younger, until they receive a second injection that will stop the aging process, but when other participants die after receiving the second shot, Melly and Anny Beth refuse to have the shot and set out to find someone to care for them when they are too young to do it themselves.

FIC HAL - Halam, Ann, Dr. Franklin's Island.

When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical island and then imprisoned by a doctor who is performing horrifying experiments on humans involving the transfer of animal genes.

FIC HAU - Hautman, Pete. The Obsidian Blade.

After thirteen-year-old Tucker Feye's parents disappear, he suspects that the strange disks of shimmering air that he keeps seeing are somehow involved, and, when he steps inside one, he is whisked away on a time-twisting journey trailed by a shadowy sect of priests and haunted by ghostlike figures.

FIC HUX - Huxley, Aldous. Brave new world.

A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.

FIC KHO - Khoury, Jessica. Origin.

Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest and is genetically engineered to be immortal and be the future of the human race, but on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

FIC LLO - Lloyd, Saci. The carbon diaries 2015.

In 2015, when England becomes the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change, sixteen-year-old Laura documents the first year of rationing as her family spirals out of control.

FIC LLO - Lloyd, Saci. Momentum.

With energy wars flaring across the globe, oil prices gone crazy, regular power cuts, and soldiers keeping the Outsiders in check, Hunter, one of the privileged of society, is fascinated by the Outsiders, so when he meets Uma he is quickly drawn into her circle of the poor and disenfranchised. 

FIC PAT - Patterson, James. The final warning: a Maximum Ride novel.

While on a mission to Antartica to save the world from global warming, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride and the other members of the Flock--a band of genetically modified children who can fly--are pursued by their creator, the Uber-Director, who who wants to auction them off to the highest bidder.

FIC PAU - Paulsen, Gary. The Transall saga. 

While backpacking in the desert, Mark falls into a tube of blue light and is transported into a more primitive world, where he must use his knowledge and skills to survive.

FIC PEA - Pearson, Mary. The Adoration of Jenna Fox

In the not-so-distant future, when synthetic bodies and brains are possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

FIC PEA - Pearson, Mary. The Fox Inheritance.

In the not-so-distant future, when synthetic bodies and brains are possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

FIC SHU - Shusterman, Neal. Unwind. (Trilogy)

Three teens embark upon a cross-country journey in order to escape from a society that salvages body parts from children ages thirteen to eighteen.

FIC VER - Verne, Jules. 20.000 leagues under the sea.

Jules Verne's classic nineteenth-century science-fiction tale about a French professor and his companions who are trapped aboard a futuristic submarine with a mad sea captain and come face to face with exotic ocean creatures and strange sights hidden from the world above.

FIC VON - Vonnegut, Kurt. Player Piano.

Describes a future America in which computers solve all your problems, machines give you everything you need, and you are taken care of from cradle to grave by an industrial society.

FIC WEL - Wells, H.G. The Island of Dr. Moreau.

"Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying an unusual cargo—a menagerie of savage animals. Nursed to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. There, he meets the sinister Dr. Moreau—a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilized world. It soon becomes clear that he has continued to develop these experiments with truly horrific results." Provided by the publisher.

FIC WER - Werlin, Nancy. Double Helix.

Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering.

FIC WES - Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. (Trilogy)

Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.

FIC WIL - Wilson, Daniel. Robopocalypse.

A tale set in the near future finds the world thrown into chaos by rebelling artificial intelligences under the leadership of a murderous technology called Archos that kills its creator and takes over the global network, triggering an unprecedented united front among all human cultures.

FIC YOU - Young, E.L. Storm: the infinity code.

In London, the teenaged geniuses of STORM, a secret organization dedicated to eliminating the world's misery through science and technology, uncover plans for a deadly weapon and race to find and dismantle it, then confront the corrupt scientist behind the scheme.

VC FIC NES - Ness, Patrick. The knife of never letting go.

Todd, one month away from an important birthday, learns all the tough lessons of adulthood when he is forced to flee after discovering a secret near the town where he lives.

All descriptions are provided from our Alexandria catalog entries except where noted.