"Jo-jo The Talking Crow" - I loved that book. The boy finds a baby crow raises it, it grows up and builds a nest and starts to take anything shiny from the family and put it in his nest without them knowing - a mystery that the boy solves (maybe he was blamed for the disappearances - can't remember!). A little older - Rachel Carson's "The Sea Around Us" - I was totally captivated by the photos, one series of which were photographed in my home town, which led me to actually read about what I was seeing.