Rain Forests ANNOTATION
Discusses the weather, life forms, soil, animals, and ecology of rain forests.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Cherie Ilg Haas
As intriguing and magnificent as Earth's rain forests are, grammatical and graphic errors in this book make it difficult to focus on the topic at hand. For example, in one place the word "tall" is broken at the end of a line, with a "t", and then the word "all" on the next line. Also, instead of placing parentheses around the word "right" to identify the location of an illustration, the word appears at the end of the sentence, almost making it seem as if the writer is asking the reader if he/she agrees. It reads as follows: "Cattle farmers then buy the land and turn it into pasture, right." Despite these careless mistakes, the book is informative and full of colorful artwork, most of which is so realistic that one has to look twice to realize that the illustrations aren't photographs. A section with easy experiments to help understand rain forests is provided. These experiments are beneficial and explained well, along with pictures demonstrating the projects. A glossary and index are included. This series, "Our Living Planet," also has books on Volcanoes, Land, Deserts, and Oceans, most of which are of similar quality. 2002, Blackbirch Press,
School Library Journal
Gr 4-8-Standard treatments that suffer from cramped layouts and some small illustrations. Rain Forests discusses the locations of tropical forests, animals, forest structure, rain-forest products, threats to the ecosystem, and other common considerations. Volcanoes includes information about plate tectonics, types of volcanoes and eruptions, volcanic rock, famous eruptions, and related subjects. In addition to problematic layouts, poor and/or lack of illustrative labeling is a concern. Often the connection between the text and the visual materials is unclear, and readers must try to determine the relevance, if any. Surprisingly, no photographs are included. Both titles conclude with a suggested activity to aid readers' understanding of the subject. These titles add little to existing books on the same topics.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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