Nonfiction Books That Make the Grade: Big Science Ideas

Crabtree, one of the stalwarts in quality nonfiction publishing for the elementary grades, has a new primary zoology series titled Big Science Ideas, written and edited by the noted Bobbie Kalman.

The series sets out to teach some of the basic concepts in zoology--the characteristics and behavior of animals. Among the already published books in the series are three which deal with the feeding characteristics of animals, What Is a Carnivore? (Big Science Ideas), What Is a Herbivore? (Big Science Ideas) and What Is an Omnivore? (Big Science Ideas) and the recent What Is a Vertebrate? (Big Science Ideas).

Each of these books definitively presents the basic concepts of its subject within a framework of scientific observation and classification. For example, What Is a Vertebrate? (Big Science Ideas). clearly defines vertebrates as animals with backbones, and in a colorful double-page spread shows the human skull and backbone with examples of the each of the five classes of vertebrates. The next chapter describes the skeleton (bony or cartilaginous), the head and skull of vertebrates, and how their joints articulate and are moved by muscle systems. This background information is followed by a closer look at the different characteristics of each class of vertebrates--fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

The numerous photos, while clearly calculated to draw the attention of primary-aged kids, are meticulously chosen to illustrate the concepts presented in the adjacent text. For example, in the chapter "Reptiles with Shells," photos of crawling land turtles and swimming sea turtles are accompanied by labeled drawings of their respective skeletons to show how they are adapted for movement on land and in water. Likewise, photos of bird skeletons and their wing skeletons show how they are adapted for flight, and a similar page design shows how the bills of various birds accommodate their methods of feeding by contrasting the bills of a hummingbird, a pelican, and an eagle and an egret.

All volumes in this series introduce scientific terms in boldface and define them specifically or by context in the text. All of these terms are also defined in child-friendly language in the glossary, and a full index is also included. Accelerated Reader levels for this series range from 3.5 to 3.7. And unlike most children's nonfiction books, which tend to be on the pricey side, this series comes in at a modest price easy on the bottom line.