Series Made Simple

Gr 1—3—Riveting, close-up photos of mantises looking inscrutably at readers and brightly lit centipedes and spiders either in natural settings or cut out and placed on blank backgrounds will draw young audiences to these introductions...

Gr 4—6—After brief overviews of the kinds of paper, pencils, markers, and paint to buy, these books include a "Master Class" spread that will help when creating some of the other drawings in the book...

Gr 2—3—Designed to prepare students for visits to zoos or nature parks, each of these volumes provides basic background information about a type of animal usually found in such places, enhanced by shaped cutout photos and shots of creatures in artificial settings...

Gr 3—5—Solid scientific material is presented in accessible language and a visually engaging, boldly colored layout...

K-Gr 1—Though possibly useful for extending ideas of what constitutes a "family," in other respects these volumes are of uneven quality at best...

Gr 9 Up—Aside from new introductions and (possibly) new material in the closing bibliographical essays, these independent surveys rearrange content from Britannica Online Encyclopedia to present broad pictures of the Middle East's varied physical and cultural landscapes, cultural highlights, and history (through early 2010, so the chapters on modern history in Egypt and Yemen are out of date)...

Gr 6—8—Quick overviews about produce, packaged foods, organics, and kitchen and food safety set the tone for the rest of the content, which encourages kids to hit the kitchen and helps them to make good nutritional choices...

Gr 3—5—Though the word "cool" is overused in these books, it will no doubt be the reaction from children after they whip up these tasty dishes...

PreS-Gr 2—The seven crafts in these books (one craft per spread) are sandwiched between brief advice on getting started and a short list of holiday-related activities toward the end...