Life in the Pond (Now I Know First Start Reader)

Filled with color illustrations of fish, insects, ducks, beavers, and more, this book presents the many different kinds of animals living in and around a typical pond

PreSchool-Grade 2 These three books try to communicate information about their subjects as well as create the mood of the settings in which they are found. They fail. Inaccuracies abound in each to such an extent that they cannot be considered as works of nonfiction, and the quality of the writing and illustration is so low that they will not pass as picture books . Birds' Nests is a wonder of inaccuracies and misinformation, showing species of birds from all over the world together with no attempt at clarification. The text, comprised predominately of sentence fragments, is choppy. The birds' names are merely printed beside each picture, but the label is so small that children could easily miss it. Life in the Pond at least takes children through a day and a night but with repetitious, unvarying sentences and gaudy watercolor illustrations. Look at a Tree is a jumbled, disorganized look at jungles and forests. It has no focus or unified approach whatsoever . Frances E. Millhouser, Arlington County Libraries, Va.
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