Gr 4—8—These books present basic information in a format and size that seems designed to appeal to readers younger than the reading level. Each book begins with a complex introduction, e.g., Fish & Amphibians includes a chart of "Late Devonian obe-finned fish and amphibious tetrapods" and continues on to an uneven presentation of the topic. Activities are the focus of this series, but the instructions are sometimes vague and/or overly complex, e.g., in Biomes, the reversible effects of cold on the behavior of fish instructs the experimenter to place a frozen container in a fish bowl to observe the change in the fish's breathing as the temperature falls. Guidelines as to the size of the fish bowl or what to use as a frozen container are limited to advising against using ice cubes because of the danger to fish in chlorinated water. Yet in Fish & Amphibians a similar project uses ice cubes. Genetics jumps right in to a description of the differences between homozygous and heterozygous traits and then employs Gummi-Bears, marshmallows, and pairs of socks in projects. Many illustrations are not of the highest quality—some are blurry and others have an amateurish "cut and paste" look to them. The yellow banana slug seems to float above the text in Sponges, Worms, and Mollusks, and the picture's caption, like most of the others, does not specify a location for the animal. Due to the contrast in reading level and the overall look and feel of the books, these are additional purchases.—Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
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