LIFE CYCLES

This title in the Discovering Nature series presents some useful information, but the format is so cluttered and busy, and the text so abbreviated, that it’s hard to sort the useful from the distracting. Each topic is covered in a double-page layout, for example: “Food for Growth,” “Plants and Seeds,” “Birds,” “Newts and Snakes,” “Food Web,” and the like. Each layout includes a paragraph introducing the topic, an activity step-by-step, a box with cartoon directions for further study, often a red warning sign when parental help is needed, a yellow diamond warning sign when precautions are needed, photographs of children working with materials, diagrams, and a patterned, colored border. Some of the activities take a minute or two: for “Reproduction” the text invites children to crack an egg and look at it, then cook and eat it; others require more time, in “Growing Up” children are advised to measure their height, make a mark on the wall, and do the same again next year. Information is sometimes abbreviated to the point of error: “Snakes are reptiles. They lay their eggs on the ground and leave the eggs to hatch by themselves.” All snakes do not lay eggs. Give it a miss. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 7-10)