Nature All Around: Plants

April 1, 2020

Gr 2-4-The third book in the "Nature All Around" series is a beautifully illustrated volume that explains a plant's life in brief, descriptive text and watercolor-and-gouache paintings. Sophisticated words are featured; photosynthesis, respiration, pollination, habitat, and endangered plants are defined in a few short sentences. A one-page pictorial teaches the three stages of growth in monocot and dicot seeds. A spread shows how certain types of flowers are attracted to specific butterflies and moths, birds, and bees. Illustrated charts introduce difficult concepts: pollination; insect-eating plants; how seeds are spread; growing zones; plant habitats and identification. A full-page illustration introduces each season and briefly describes what occurs in a plant's life cycle during this season. A short discussion of plant habitats includes aquatic, arctic, alpine, and desert plants. A full-page "recipe" provides instructions for growing "microgreens." A two-page glossary and an index will help youngsters remember plant terminology and locate specific information. VERDICT This brief introduction to the world of plants is a serviceable primer.-Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Public Library, OH

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February 1, 2020
The Nature All Around team offers facts about plants: specifically, flowering plants in Canada and the United States. The text follows the conversational pattern established in earlier series outings and includes quirky, original metaphors, such as "A seed is like a tiny picnic basket full of food that the plant uses when it starts to grow." The art complements it by avoiding gimmicks and using stylized, but usually appropriately detailed, watercolors to show the science. For example, there's no cartoonish picnic basket here; instead, watercolor diagrams differentiate the sprouting of a monocot wheat versus a dicot bean seed. The layout offers plenty of variety without overstimulating browsing, but economical captioning demands that readers glean most of the book's informational content from the text. Some readers may wish for slightly more detail in the illustrations on a spread about identifying plant components by type. The page that gives step-by-step directions for growing microgreens, however, is a perfect example of excellent collaboration among writer, illustrator, and designer, from its italicized definition at the start to a colorful plate of raw veggies scattered with sprouts at the end. The pollination page is likewise a terrific addition to early sex education. Another charming entry in a delightful natural-science series. (glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 7-10)

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February 15, 2020
Grades 2-4 Like the two previous books in the Nature All Around series, Trees (2019) and Bugs (2019), this large-format volume introduces an enormous subject by focusing on one aspect at a time. A Canadian writer with a background in environmental studies and biology, Hickman understands the topic (flowering plants) and doesn't talk down to children. The overall organization of information seems a bit random, jumping from common structures in flowering plants to natural defenses to photosynthesis to the differences in how humans and various pollinators perceive the colors of flowers, all within six pages. But each individual page offers interesting facts, and the accompanying illustrations are quite helpful in showing a monocot seed and a dicot seed at several stages of germination, for example, or whether the leaves on a stem are opposite, alternate, or whorled. Adding enormously to the book's appeal, Gavin's many watercolor-and-gouache paintings vary from small pictures of particular wildflowers to large scenes featuring plants in different seasons. An appended activity page shows how to grow microgreens. An attractive science book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)