The following is a list of recommended books that provide a wide range of reading and research resources for this unit. Collect as many as you can for your classroom science library, or provide the list to your school librarian.

General Weather Books

Hot and Cold (It’s Science)

By Sally Hewitt. (2000, Children’s Press)

Simple text and photos illustrate the concepts of temperature.

Hot and Cold (Rookie Read-About Science)

By Allan Fowler. (1995, Children’s Press)

Describes the meaning of temperature with clear text and illustrations.

How Artists See the Weather: Sun, Wind, Snow, Rain

By Colleen Carroll. (1998, Abbeville Press)

This book is a wonderful way to not only reinforce familiar weather concepts, but also introduce art.

North, South, East and West (Rookie Read-About Science)

By Allan Fowler. (1994, Children’s Press)

Gives a simple explanation of the four cardinal directions and tells how to use the sun to determine direction. Useful for the “Using a Compass” Skill Building Activity.

Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems

Selected by Beatrice Schenk deRegniers, et al., illustrated by nine Caldecott Medal artists. (1988, Scholastic Inc.)

Has a nice selection called “Mostly Weather” with watercolor illustrations by Marcia Brown.

Weather (Eyewitness Explorers)

By John Farndon. (1992, Dorling Kindersley Publishing)

Directs children to watch and understand the weather—for example, clouds, rain, snow, wind, a hot day—and do activities such as make their own barometer.

The Weather (FACTfinders Interactive Multimedia)

By Dick File. (McGraw-Hill Consumer Products)

This combination book and CD-ROM answers questions about the weather. (Appropriate for ages 3 -10.)

Weather Forecasting

By Gail Gibbons. (1993, Aladdin)

With straightforward text and colorful pictures, this behind-the-scenes look at a modern weather station answers basic questions that kids ask most, and makes weather forecasting more fun and accessible than ever.

Weather: Poems for All Seasons (An I Can Read Book, level 3 for independent readers)

Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Melanie Hall. (1995. Harper Trophy Publishers.)

Short poems, clear text, and nice illustrations.

Weather Words and What They Mean

By Gail Gibbons. (1990, Holiday House)

Clear color drawings and explanations of weather words such as “temperature,” “air pressure,” “moisture,” and “wind.”

Air and Wind

Air is All Around You (Let’s Read and Find Out Science Series)

By Franklyn Mansfield Branley; illustrated by Holly Keller. (1986, Harper Trophy)

Funny illustrations and approachable science writing show how air is in everything, including water.

Blow Away Soon

By Betsy James; illustrated by Anna Vojtech. (1995, Penguin)

Sophie lives with her grandmother near the desert, where the wind blows and blows. She doesn’t like the wind until her grandmother teaches her how to make a blow-away-soon, a tower of rocks covered with special items to give the wind. She learns that the wind scatters grass seeds, carves the rocks, and provides currents for birds to fly in.

Gilberto and the Wind

By Marie Hall Ets. (1978, Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers)

A young boy finds wind to be a playmate of many moods: one that can sail boats, fly kites, blow dirt, and turn umbrellas inside out. Appropriate for early readers.

If We Could See Air (Nature All Around)

By David T. Suzuki; illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes. (1996, Stoddart Kids)

One day at the beach, Megan and Jamie learn that, although air is invisible, it is all around us, and it does amazing things.

The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane

By Joanne Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen. (1996, Scholastic)

Ms. Frizzle takes her class on a trip into the clouds to gather facts about hurricanes. The magic school bus changes into a weather balloon and then into an airplane as the class experiences a hurricane and a spin-off tornado first hand.

Make Things Fly: Poems About the Wind

Edited by Dorothy M. Kennedy; illustrated by Sasha Meret. (1998, Margaret McElderry)

A collection of 27 rhythmic poems about the wind; great for reading aloud.

Our Violent Earth

By Robin Darcey Davis, Catherine O’Neill, and James A. Cox. (1982, National Geographic Society)

Describes the causes and effects of such geologic and atmospheric phenomena as earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, drought, fire, and flood. The “Stormy Weather” section is particularly useful for its photos of wind and wind-ravaged communities. Look for this book in your library.

Wind (Science Secrets Series)

By Jason Cooper. (1992, The Rourke Book Company)

Provides a simple discussion of the causes of air movement, uses of wind power, and such phenomena as hurricanes and tornadoes.

Windy Day (First-Start Easy Reader)

By Janet Palazzo-Craig; illustrated by Julie Durrell. (1989, Troll Assoc.)

Penny the mouse has many adventures when she goes to mail a letter on a very windy day. Also appropriate for early readers.

Clouds

The Cloud Book

By Tomie de Paola. (1985, Holiday House)

Introduces the ten most common types of clouds, the myths that have been inspired by their shapes, and what they can tell us about coming weather changes. A good book for reading aloud.

Clouds (Weather)

By Gail Saunders-Smith. (1998, Pebble Books)

Part of a series of books about the weather; introduces the most important attributes of clouds.

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

By Charles Shaw. (1988 [1947], HarperCollins Juvenile Books)

The white shape silhouetted against a blue background changes on every page. Is it a rabbit, a bird, or just spilt milk? Children are kept guessing until the surprise ending. With repetitive rhymes, the book is easy for children to memorize and “reread.”

Nature: Poems, Old and New

By May Swenson. (2000, Houghton Mifflin)

Excellent collection of poems. “The Cloud Mobile” poem, in particular, creates beautiful imagery of clouds.

What Do You See in a Cloud? (Rookie Read-About Science)

By Allan Fowler. (1996, Children’s Press)

Color photos illustrate simple descriptions of the shapes and types of clouds.

Snow and Ice

Ice Is… Whee! (Rookie Reader)

By Carol Green; illustrated by Paul Sharp. (1983, Children’s Press)

Ice is cold, slippery, pretty, and a lot of fun for children.

Little House in the Big Woods

By Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams. (1932; 1971, HarperTrophy)

First book in the Laura Years series. Laura lives with Pa and Ma and her sisters in a snug little house built of logs. Too advanced for beginning readers; however, the chapter “The Sugar Snow” is appropriate for reading aloud and setting a mood in the classroom. In the chapter "Dance at Grandpa's", the Ingalls family makes candy with hot maple syrup and snow.

Skating on Thin Ice (First Start Easy Reader)

By Louise Everett; illustrated by Richard Max Kolding. (1989, Troll Assoc.)

In this easy-to-read story, Rosie the elephant and her friend Joe enjoy ice-skating until Joe falls through the ice.

Snowflake Bentley

By Jacqueline Briggs Martin; illustrated by Mary Azarian. (1998, Scholastic Inc.)

The 1999 Caldecott Medal-winning biography of Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farm boy who grew up to become a world-famous snowflake expert and one of the first to successfully photograph snowflakes. Blends beautiful woodcuts, storybook text, and factual sidebars.

The Snowy Day

By Ezra Jack Keats. (1981, Viking Press)

A 1963 Caldecott Medal winner, this is a simple and graphically beautiful tale of a boy in the city who wakes up to discover that snow has fallen during the night.

Water as a Solid

By Helen Frost. (2000, Pebble Books)

Simple text presents facts about water in its solid state, its properties, and its uses.

Winter Rescue

By W.D. Valgardson; illustrated by Ange Zhang. (1995, Margaret McElderry)

While helping his grandfather, an ice fisherman on Lake Winnipeg, Thor spots a man who has driven his snowmobile through a weak patch of ice.

Sun

Shine, Sun! (Rookie Reader)

By Carol Greene. Illustrated by Gene Sharp. (1983, Children’s Press)

As a child talks to the sun, the reader can see some of the sun’s happy effects.

The Sun

By Seymour Simon. (1989, Mulberry Books)

Describes the nature of the sun, its origin, source of energy, layers, atmosphere, sunspots, and activity.

The Sun’s Day

By Mordecai Gerstein. (1989, HarperCrest)

This picture book follows the sun’s course across the sky over a day. Illustrations show shadows moving, and the story conveys a sense of time.

Sun Song

By Jean Marzollo. Illustrated by Laura Regan. (1995, HarperCollins Juvenile Books)

Through rhyming text and acrylic paintings, animals and plants respond to the sun’s changing light over the course of a single day.

Sun Up, Sun Down

By Gail Gibbons. (1983, Harcourt Brace)

Describes the characteristics of the sun and the ways in which it regulates life on earth. The simple illustrations help explain science concepts to children.

Water Cycle

Down Comes the Rain

By Frank Branley. (1997, Harper Collins)

This book provides an excellent introduction to weather and the water cycle.

A Drop Around the World

By Barbara Shaw McKinney; illustrated by Michael S. Maydak. (1998, Dawn Publications.)

Through rhyming text and full-color illustrations, children follow an anthropomorphized “Drop” on its travels around the world in solid, liquid, and vaporous states.

Follow a Raindrop: The Water Cycle (Super Science Readers)

By Elsie Ward. (1995, Scholastic)

A drop of water and a little girl visit and re-visit each other as the drop goes through the water cycle.

The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks.

By Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen. (1988, Scholastic)

Ms. Frizzle drives the magic school bus into a cloud, where the children shrink to the size of water droplets and follow the course of water through the city’s waterworks.

The Magic School Bus Wet All Over: A Book About the Water Cycle

By Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen. (1996, Scholastic)

Ms. Frizzle and the class evaporate, condense into a rain cloud, and drizzle down upon the earth.