Found this website that might be useful for the environmental part:

http://www.ee.enr.state.nc.us/edresource...

Julie of the Wolves is on that list, and I just picked that up from the library, so I'll be able to tell you what I think of it shortly.

I haven't read these books but these online reviews may be helpful:

http://www.curledupkids.com/wavewtch.htm

http://www.curledupkids.com/wrimagic.htm

http://www.curledupkids.com/moxymaxw.htm

For the first series I would recommend Exodus by Julie Bertagna. It takes place as the polar ice caps are melting and the world becomes flooded with water and land starts disappearing from the earth. However it may be too intense for 5th graders.

Maybe The People of Sparks from Jeanne DuPrau's Books of Ember series. It is the second in the series, but I know it can be read as a stand alone book. It has to deal with how a barely surviving village handles the influx of a lot of people who left their own crumbling underground city. So it deals with dwindling resources and how everybody has to pitch in and use their gifts to survive.


For the second I would suggest Click. It's actually a collection of stories by different writers all about a fictional photographer and soldier named George Keane.

I may be able to come up with more.

Thanks Misty and Heather. No, no length constraints.

Any constraints on how long the books should be?

Well, Harriet the Spy is a writer...
I'm going to have to puzzle this over for a bit.

Hi all!

I need read-aloud novels for two of my trimester long units this coming school year. One of my units (called Storylines) is about the environment -after experiencing many things in many biomes, we conclude that the cause of the majority of the problems in biomes is global warming and take action to help. Topics that read-alouds could fit are: the environment, Arctic Tundra, African Savanna, Florida Everglades, the Great Barrier Reef and global warming. I teach fifth-graders. (I thought of _Hoot_ just now)

The other Storyline is about photography & writing. We are introduced to Margaret Bourke-White and _Life Magazine_ and come to the conclusion that we want to create a photography and writing magazine. We need read-alouds that could fit: photography, photographers, writing, writers, publishing, etc.

Thanks for your suggestions!
Laurie