Interesting and informative stories of the strange but fascinating behavior of various types of insects. The pictures are of the somewhat cheezy 60s variety, but the text is quite good and written at approximately a second grade level.

This is a fun and very kid-friendly introduction to the body and its various functions and capabilities. It begins with a set of transparent overlays which portray the skeleton (skeletal system), the heart, lungs and blood (cardiovascular system), and the brain and nerves and digestive system. When I first got this book (back in the days when I was a DK representative for a short time) I worried that this book wouldn't hold up very well. After more than three years of use by little hands, I have to admit it's done quite well.

The rest of the book provides simple text, funny illustrations and the trademark DK photos covering the following topics: faces, skin and hair, muscles and bones, blood and heart, lungs and breathing, digestion, brain and nerves, eyes and seeing, ears and hearing, taste and smell, touch, growing up and "all about you."

The digestion is handled quite politely (no graphic pictures) and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the "growing up" section was handled. It begins with a very sweet and simple explanation of conception "A baby starts when a tiny sperm from the father joins with an egg inside the mother. The egg attaches itself to a part of the mother called the womb..." (pg. 29) and goes on to descriptions of the various stages of development of an unborn baby. Although the term fetus is mentioned, the baby is called a baby throughout the text!!! Again – no yucky pictures but not twaddly or dumbed-down either.

You are probably already familiar with the animal stories written by Thornton Burgess in the early 1900s. These go by titles such as "The Adventures of Johnny Chuck" and "Old Mother West Wind" and are sold by Dover Press for only $1. Each book tells about the life and adventures of various animals in such a way that the child easily learns about animal habitat and woodland lessons. In "Old Mother West Wind" the book starts off telling about her children, "The Merry Breezes," who carry scents of animals as they fly along ruffling (tickling) the fur of different animals. Later in the book we read about a bird who, one night, almost loses her eggs to a skunk without a stripe. Now we have an idea of why God gave skunks stripes. My daughter silently reads a chapter from these books each day and narrates them at dinner. These are written at the second grade level and contain just a few illustrations (line drawings).

Update April 2024: This particular boxed-set is no longer available, but the individual titles still are. Today, they run about $5 each, new.

I confess I have a stack of books here waiting... some about libraries under different themes. Alas, the warmth today brings our minds to travel towards a green world, full of sunshine and growth.

That, coupled with my 4th grader exclaiming, "Mom, you should blog about this nice book!" has me posting this gem found at the library under new books just yesterday! She is an avid picture book reader and her enthusiasm for this colorful, plant-full book alone is a thumbs up for me!

Product description: 

Plants come in all shapes and sizes, but they go through the same stages as they grow. Using four common plants, young readers learn about a plant's life cycles. Simple text and colorful illustrations show the major phases of plant growth: seed, plant, flower, and fruit. Back matter offers more information on each plant, as well as on each stage of growth.