Below is an annotated list of fiction and non-fiction titles connecting to Earth, Life, or the Physical Sciences. They are available in the Frolio Middle School Library.

FICTION TITLES:

Anderson, Laurie. Fever 1793. -  In 1793 Philadelphia, 14-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of  a yellow fever epidemic.

Cooney, Caroline B. Code Orange. -  While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City.

Creech, Sharon. The Wanderer. – 13-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their trans-atlantic crossing aboard the Wanderer, a 45-foot sailboat, which along with uncles and another cousin, is en route to visit their grandfather in England.

Gregory, Earthquake at Dawn. – A novelization of 22-year-old photographer Edith Irvin’s experiences in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Daisy.

Hobbs, Will. Down the Yukon. – In the wake of Dawson City’s Great Fire of 1899, 16-year-old Jason and his girlfriend Jamie canoe the Yukon River across Alaska in an epic race from Canada’s Klondike to the new gold fields at Cape Nome.

Hobbs, Will. Leaving Protection. – 16-year-old Robbie, happy to get a job aboard a troller fishing for king salmon off southeastern Alaska, finds himself in danger when he discovers that his mysterious captain is searching for long-buried Russian plagues that lay claim to Alaska and the Northwest.

Ibbotson, Eva. Journey to the River Sea. – Sent with her governess to live with the dreadful Carter family in exotic Brazil in 1910, Maia endures many hardships before fulfilling her dream of exploring the Amazon River.

Hiaasen, Carl. Flush. – With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. – Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.

Klass, David. California Blue. – Teenager John Rodgers and his dying father find themselves on opposite sides of an environmental battlefield.  At issue is a new species of blue butterflies that John discovers on a job through land owned by the lumber mill that employs his father and most of his town.

Koller, Jackie French. Someday. – In 1938, 14-year-old Celie must cope with leaving her Enfield, Massachusetts, home and her life-long friend, Chubby, as the day approaches when the Swift River Valley will be flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir for Boston.

Lewis, Richard. The Killing Sea. – In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Sumatra, two teenagers, American Sarah and Acehnese Ruslan, meet and continue together their arduous climb inland, where Ruslan hopes to find his father and Sarah seeks a doctor for her brother.

Malterre, Elona. The Last Wolf in Ireland. – Despite the frightening stories they’ve heard about wolves, a boy and girl, living in Ireland in the 1780s, attempt to defy authority and save the last wolf left in the country.

Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. – After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

Morpurgo, Michael. Kensuke’s Kingdom. – When Michael is swept off his family’s yacht, he washes up on a desert island, where he struggles to survive – until he finds he’s not alone but accompanied by a Nagasaki bomb survivor.

O’Brien, Robert C. Z for Zachariah. – Seemingly the only person left alive after a nuclear war, a 16-year-old girl is relieved to see a man arrive into her valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must somehow escape.

Paulsen, Gary. Brian’s Winter. – Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author’s book Hatchet, this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life as We Knew It. – Through journal entries 16-year-old Miranda describes her family’s struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Smith, Roland. The Last Lobo. – When Jake, a teenager, takes his grandfather on a visit to their Hopi tribal homeland in Arizona, he finds himself fighting to save an endangered Mexican wolf.

Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. – When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, a 12-year-old white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a small desert island in the Caribbean, where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.

Whelan, Gloria. Listening for Lions. – Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1919, a 13-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor’s identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents’ mission hospital.

White, Robb. Deathwatch. – Needing money for school, a college boy accepts a job as a guide on a desert hunting trip and nearly loses his life.

NON-FICTION TITLES:

Armstrong, Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. – Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Black Potatoes: the Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. – An account of the potate blight that struck in Ireland, telling the story of the men, women and children who made every attempt to survive and hang on to hope.

Calabro, Marian. The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party. – Uses materials from letters and diaries written by survivors of the Donner Party to relate the experiences of that ill-fated group as they endured horrific circumstances on their way to California in 1846-1847.

Herriot, James. All Creatures Great and Small. -  Memoirs by a Scottish veterinarian about his humorous encounters with his animal patients and their owners as part of his practice in Yorshire, England.

Marrin, Albert. Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Search for the Smallpox Vaccine. –  The tale of unknown country doctor Edward Jenner and his development in 1796 of the world’s first vaccine against the dreaded smallpox, a disease so deadly and contagious it has dramatically influenced the course of history.

Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: the True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. –  A powerful, dramatic account of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia.

Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. – An account of the massive 1871 fire of Chicago told through the eyes of survivors.

Paulsen, Gary. Caught by the Sea: My Life on Boats. – An autobiographical account of Paulsen’s lifelong love of sailing and of the ocean.

Paulsen, Gary. Woodsong. – For a rugged outdoor man and his family, life in northern Minnesota is an adventure involving wolves, deer, and sled dogs.  Includes an account of the author’s first Iditarod, a dogsled race across Alaska.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex. –Recounts the 1820 sinking of the whaleship “Essex” by an enraged sperm whale and how the crew of young men survived against impossible odds.