Dairy Products

Gr 2–4—Colorfully and carefully designed, these slim volumes offer comprehensive introductions to food production. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of where their food comes from and everything that happens to it before it reaches the dinner table. The introductory first chapters are the weakest parts of the books, but the writing seems more precise in subsequent sections. Factual material is punctuated with amusing anecdotes, such as a theory of how cheese was discovered: a man galloped on a horse with a bag of milk on a hot day and voila: cheese. The mixture of historical and contemporary photos complements the text. Sidebars are lengthy but not cumbersome, and the glossaries are adequate. There are no informative graphics or diagrams, which would have been appropriate for this subject. Nevertheless, these books promote discussion, critical thinking, and further research. Their main strength is their unbiased, evenhanded approach to divisive subjects such as vegetarianism and organic produce.