What's the Go of That?

" 'What's the go o' that? What does it do?...But what's the particular go of it?' " Spoken nearly two centuries ago, by a child who just had to know what made the machines and physical phenomena around him work, the words may be unfamiliar, but to anyone who works with young people, the attitude isn't; nearly every child is born with it. Then adolescence heaves up over the horizon, and that burning curiosity about what makes the world tick often heads for the intellectual back seat—perhaps from a sense that it's all too complicated to understand, or not really important, or just not interesting.

Below is a selection of recent books (plus one timeless classic) guaranteed to persuade middle grade readers otherwise. Some appeal to the intellect; others to the funnybone, or the sense of wonder. Most view science from the points of view of people who "do" it, and capture their deep-seated enthusiasm; others invite readers to look outward to the edges of the universe, or inward to the marvels that lie on or beneath our skin. Some are quick reads; others, massive but essential reference books. Some take unusual approaches to their subjects; look for Hans Magnus Enzensberger's The Number Devil, a satiric dive into mathematics, on fiction shelves, and caution readers not to eat while reading Joy Masoff's Oh Yuck or Gael Jennings'Bloody Moments. And…poetry? Definitely! Whether celebrating the achievements of scientists and inventors, looking perceptively at what has driven them, or finding new ways to explore the edges of our understanding, poetry provides angles of insight that can slice through the heaviest layers of incomprehension or indifference.

The child quoted above? That was James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), who went on to, among other brilliant achievements, illuminate the relationship between electricity and magnetism, and to create the first color photograph. Most children aren't going to become professional scientists or inventors, but all have the potential, with encouragement from parents, teachers, and books like these, to keep looking for the "goes," and to understand how profoundly that search will enrich their entire lives.–John Peters

ALLABY, Michael & Derek Gjertsen. Makers of Science. 5 vols. Oxford Univ. 2002.
Gr 5-9 –This set will be eminently useful for assigned reports, but readers who delve into it will quickly be absorbed by its stories of how 41 men and women, from Aristotle to Stephen Hawking, found nearly as many ways to push the boundaries of knowledge. More than 300 other scientists are also briefly profiled.

BAUSUM, Ann. Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Roy Chapman Andrews. National Geographic. 2000.
Gr 5-8 –A real-life Indiana Jones, Andrews went from custodian to director of New York's American Museum of Natural History by leading a series of fossil-hunting expeditions into the Gobi Desert that sparked the still-ongoing ferment in paleontology. An inspiring character portrait, illustrated with dramatic contemporary photos and capped by well-chosen lists of books and Web sites.

BROOKS, Bruce, ed. Red Wasteland: A Personal Selection of Writings about Nature for Young Readers. Holt. 1998.
Gr 5-9 –From a passage from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring to an animal worker's horrifying, dispassionate account of watching a supposedly captive hyena eat her arm, and selections from over a dozen other naturalists, Brooks brings the wild world into sharp focus while providing a literary sampler that is likely to awaken a lifelong interest in nature and nature writing.

ENZENSBERGER, Hans Magnus. The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure. illus. by Rotraut Susanne Berner. tr. from German by Michael Henry Heim. Holt. 1998.
Gr 6-9 –Fans of Norton Juster's classic The Phantom Tollbooth (Random, 1961), of wicked satire, or of math in general will howl as a little devil teaches young Robert how to call the shots with numbers, including those that are "unreasonable" (i.e., irrational) and "Prima donna" (prime, that is), on the way to a dinner in Number Heaven. And what's for dessert? Pie, of course!

FLEISCHMAN, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science. Houghton. 2002.
Gr 5-8 –Beginning with a medical miracle, and ending in mystery, this case study of a railroad worker who not only survived having an iron rod blast through his head, but also went on to lead a (more or less) normal life, serves as a rousing reminder that there is much about the brain that we do not know. The photos and computer-generated reconstructions are as striking (so to speak) as the story.

GRAUN, Ken & Suzanne Maly. Our Galaxy and the Universe. Ken. 2002.
Gr 4-6 –An astronomy writer and an award-winning science teacher team up to present a memorable, high-density tour of the universe. Books about space tend to crowd library shelves, but this one rises to the top for its lively tone—which makes its masses of information far more digestible—and for the unusually close relationship between the text and the illustrations.

HARRIS, Robie H. It's Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health. illus. by Michael Emberley. Candlewick. 1994.
Gr 5 Up –This frank, fresh consciousness-raiser not only gives readers of both sexes straight information about current or upcoming changes in their bodies and emotional landscapes, but also presents an exemplary argument for the idea that scientific knowledge is inextricably intertwined with every aspect of our lives, and can be of immediate, even urgent, personal importance to everyone.

JACKSON, Donna M. Bone Detectives: How Forensic Anthropologists Solve Crimes and Uncover Mysteries of the Dead. photos. by Charlie Fellenbaum. Little, Brown. 1996.
Gr 4-7 –A skull found in a Boy Scout camp… a rotted foot discovered by a dog… a corpse packed in ice for more than 5000 years…. Is this the stuff of science? Jackson answers that question in fascinating, sometimes gruesome detail, showing how scientists can solve crimes and reconstruct long-past events from the most unlikely clues.

JACKSON, Ellen. Looking for Life in the Universe: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. photos. by Nic Bishop. Houghton. 2002.
Gr 4-6 –A recent entry in the terrific "Scientists in the Field" series, this title introduces Dr. Jill Harter, a leading researcher in the (so far fruitless, but stay tuned) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). She insists that she's not the model for the Jodie Foster character in the film Contact—but the parallels are too close to ignore, as readers will discover.

JENNINGS, Gael. Bloody Moments: And Further Highlights from the Astounding History of Medicine. illus. by Roland Harvey. Annick, dist. by Firefly. 2000.
Gr 4-6 –Wonderfully gross illustrations will glue readers to this tour through the history of modern medicine, from the times when bloodletting and leeches were the cutting edge to the discovery of antibiotics.

KRAUSS, Lawrence M. The Physics of Star Trek. Basic Books. 1995.
Gr 6 Up –A lively discussion of physical principles and the universe as accurately—or not—rendered in the "Star Trek" films and TV series. Chapter headings give a taste of what's in store for unwary readers: "Chapter I: Newton Antes. Chapter II: Einstein Raises. Chapter III: Hawking Shows His Hand. Chapter IV: Data Ends The Game."

MACAULAY, David. The New Way Things Work. rev. ed. illus. by author. Houghton/A Walter Lorraine Bk. 1998.
Gr 4-7 –From levers to ATMs, can openers to digital cameras, Macaulay, with assistance from a cartoon crew of diminutive woolly mammoths, explains and illustrates the "go" of nearly every manifestation of technology in our lives.

MASOFF, Joy. Oh, Yuck!: The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty. illus. by Terry Sirrell. Workman. 2001.
Gr 4-8 –For anyone who's ever wondered what causes pimples (and whether popping them is a good idea) or stinky feet, who'd love to get the "Scoop on Poop," or read about giant beetles, blood-sucking insects and similar undeniably scientific topics, here's the perfect reference book. Impossible to put down (or to keep from reading aloud), this compendium of the disgusting may be even more effective than Robie H. Harris's It's Perfectly Normal in breaking down resistance to the idea that science is for someone else.

MCCLAFFERTY, Carla Killough. The Head Bone's Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky, and Wonderful X-Ray. Farrar. 2001.
Gr 5-8 –In a darkened lab, a researcher puts his hand into the path of an invisible beam of light—and sees his own bones. Years later, other scientists use those same beams to reveal secrets of distant galaxies, ancient Egyptian mummies… and teeth. This look at the many ways we have used, and misused, X rays in the last century tells one of the great stories in the history of modern technology.

MCGOWAN, Chris. Make Your Own Dinosaur Out of Chicken Bones. illus. by Julian Mulock. HarperCollins. 1997.
Gr 4-7 –For young people bored by volcanoes and other ho-hum science projects, here's a painless (well, not for the chickens) way to spark an interest in paleontology, using materials from the garbage can to teach some of the structural similarities between birds and dinosaurs. And, there's an enticing sequel: T-Rex to Go: Build Your Own from Chicken Bones (HarperCollins, 1999).

NELSON, Marilyn. Carver: A Life in Poems. Front St. 2001.
Gr 8 Up –Anchored with historical footnotes, Nelson's free-verse poems probe the character, goals, and dreams of George Washington Carver—and how they survived the horrifying brutality of the Jim Crow South, as well as the more subtle, pervasive racist attitudes of the North. This Newbery Honor book combines an uncommon approach to biography with an inspiring tale of odds overcome.

ORENSTEIN, Ronald. New Animal Discoveries. Millbrook. 2001.
Gr 4-7 –Animals unknown to science are turning up all the time: some in remote jungles, others as close as the nearest food market, or even right underfoot. This title is an enthralling reminder that there is much about our planet that we still don't know. It not only makes a strong case for the need to preserve threatened wilderness areas, but also suggests that there are many more discoveries to make.

PLOTZ, Helen, comp. Imagination's Other Place: Poems of Science and Mathematics. illus. by Clare Leighton. Crowell. 1955.
Gr 6 Up –Still the finest collection of science poetry ever, this generous sampling of poetry—from T. S. Eliot to Ogden Nash, the Book of Job to Dylan Thomas—will move, amuse, and challenge thoughtful readers with its wealth of ruminations on astronomy, physics, chemistry, medicine, famous scientists, and much more.

RIDPATH, Ian, ed. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe. Watson-Guptill. 2001.
Gr 6-10 –Readers who want to know much, much more about the solar system, the cosmos at large (in fact, as large as it gets), Newtonian and quantum physics, astronomy, the history of space exploration, and other topics introduced in Graun and Maly's book (see above), will find the blizzard of no-nonsense articles in this topical encyclopedia a perfect follow-up—particularly for its dense network of cross-references and heavy-duty lists of books and Web sites.

SIDMAN, Joyce. Eureka! Poems about Inventors. illus. by K. Bennett Chavez. Millbrook. 2002.
Gr 4-8 –From the prehistoric genius who first shaped clay into a bowl to the World Wide Web's inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Sidman celebrates the combination of sudden insight and profound patience that were behind most of the world's great inventions.

STEIN, Paul. Ice Ages of the Future. Rosen. 2001.
Gr 5-7 –So are we in for fire? Or ice? The answer is—yes. Balancing numerous books and news stories about global warming, a meteorologist presents evidence from the prehistoric record of a worldwide cold snap that descended in a mere half-century. And it could happen again.

THIMMESH, Catherine. The Sky's the Limit: Stories of Discovery by Women and Girls. illus. by Melissa Sweet. Houghton. 2002.
Gr 5-7 –So science is for guys? From early fossil hunter Mary Anning to astronomer Vera Rubin, whose "dark matter" theory really upset the cosmological applecart, women have made significant discoveries in every scientific field—and not always as adults either, as Thimmesh proves.

TOMB, Howard & Dennis Kunkel. Microaliens: Dazzling Journeys with an Electron Microscope. illus. by Tracy Dockray. Farrar. 1993.
Gr 5-8 –Hook a camera to an electron microscope, and an "alien" universe no further away than the surface of your skin is revealed. Here, in hundreds of stunning, extreme close-ups, viewers are taken from the surface of a butterfly's wing to the walls of their own intestines, from tiny, intricate grains of pollen to a face-to-face with a mosquito. A "Mystery Photograph" opens each chapter of this eye-popping journey through microscopic worlds.

WEBB, Pauline & Mark Suggitt. Gadgets and Necessities: An Encyclopedia of Household Innovations. ABC-CLIO. 2000.
Gr 5-8 –An alphabetical catalog of more than 200 items, from toasters to convenience foods, Tupperware to television, that were virtually unknown in 1901, but commonly found in 2001, this volume provides an often-startling demonstration of just how quickly, and radically, new gadgets or products can change both daily lives and society at large.

WHITFIELD, Philip. Evolution. Gale/Macmillan Reference. 2000.
Gr 6 Up –This comprehensive treatment of one of science's truly Big Ideas combines meaty discussions of evolution's scope, implications, tools, and controversies with memorable, often riveting illustrations—and devastating rebuttals of creationist and "intelligent design" arguments.