The Grolier Library of Environmental Concepts and Issues

What is the significance of the ozone layer? How do heat and magnetism affect Earth? Select one of Earth's ecosystems and report on its global value. Topics like these appear with increasing frequency as student assignments. The Grolier Library of Environmental Concepts and Issues introduces these subjects and many others, such as air quality, alternative energy sources, the impact of modern farming techniques, wetland conservation, and the politics of the environmental movement. Eight slim volumes address a variety of environmental issues in a clear, factual, balanced fashion. Each volume focuses on a broad environmental topic such as "Water: A Finite Resource" or "People and the Environment" and is a monograph that can stand on its own, to be read in chapters rather than approached for a quick lookup. The coverage, reading level, and paperback teacher's guide seem most appropriate for middle-school class work.

Each volume includes a brief table of contents and a very short index. Volume titles can be clear, like volume 4, Energy, or more obscure; volume 1 is titled Ecosystem Earth and volume 7, The Earth's Ecosystem. Inserted within chapters are special articles called case studies (the Everglades, the car of the future, Superfund) and interesting highlighted facts labeled "Envirobits" ("Breathing air in Mexico City is considered the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes daily." ). The Envirobits have real child appeal but note no source and are not indexed.

Although colorfully illustrated with photographs and drawings, many of the full-page photographs appear designed to take up space rather than amplify the text. Each chapter concludes with a brief, current source list of rather scholarly materials. The eighth and final volume of this work ends with a useful glossary of clear, brief definitions and a cumulative index.

The Grolier Library is a valuable environmental resource for school libraries and classrooms. However, its format, minimal indexing, and lack of cross-referencing limit its usefulness for reference.