Science Nature Books

I always read reviews before purchasing and when I read the reviews on this book, I knew it would be a great book. My son is Autistic and has always been an animal lover. The fact that this book has superb pictures alone is the perfect choice for any child! Another bonus is the wonderful variety of animals and the extent of information provided. My son has carried the book to school almost every day, regardless of how much it weighs! You can't go wrong, I promise. Thank you to a fabulous author, David Burnie!

I wanted a book that showed all types of animals for my grandchildren to look at. This book has beautiful color pictures of every animal imaginable. As the children age (they are only 6 and 4 yrs old ) and are able to read at higher levels, they can learn about each animal in great detail.

The photography is beautiful, vivid colors, and explanations of everything is provided. I see them picking this book up as teenagers and still finding something they missed.

My 8 year old son wanted this book after seeing it at school. This was one of the first animal books he has wanted as he is much more interested in sports. He read it for hours, made lists of important things to remember, and wanted to read it to me at night. Great value, very detail oriented.

5 stars for this magnificent family book! Why? I have to very inquisitive daughters who ask many questions. Of course many relate to the natural world, more specifically insects and animals. When the inevitable questions come I say "C'mon let's check the book". We check this book often and have spent hours going through the pictures. What greater way to spend time with your kids,than learning together. The pictures are beautiful, the information is concise and interesting. A truly great book for the family, for browsing, and the coffee table. Great value! I also recommend D.K. publishing's HUMAN. Another amazing book.

Great! Very detailed information but not too lengthy. Nice for quick reference. Clear photographs. It's a thick book with lots of information but it is very organized. Not just about basic animals but nearly every known animals in the world and the areas they live in. I would recommended it for kids, teens, and adults alike.

i ordered this book and a dvd at the same time elsewhere, and im already halfway through the book and the dvd has yet to be opened. thanks!

Along with Secrets of the Soil by the same authors, a ground-breaking work that will make you rethink your entire view of the universe. Decades ahead of the scientific establishment (and I should know; I'm part of it).

I first read this book in the mid-70s. I've got a brother-in-law who's a vegetarian and I will pick this up for him. I actually eat vegetarian most of the time (beef cattle and elk are classified as vegetarians aren't they?).
I believe that if Vegetarians are really serious about the pain and suffering that is inflicted on animals at slaughter, maybe they need to look at their argument from another perspective. The elk and deer that I hunt live a wonderful and free existence (until it gets to be -40 F and deep snow). I generally lose the battle with them and come home empty handed. Most of them probably die of old age or starvation.
Now, on the other hand, if you think of the brief life in the sun that a stalk of broccoli leads . . . they live their life with their most tender parts buried alive. Can you imagine the terror that goes through their mind (?) as they see the harvester approaching and they are unable to flee for their lives? At least I give the wild animals a chance to run and escape (they mostly win!). Also, by harvesting my own wild game, I don't rely on a paid asassin (aka gardener, grower, migrant laborer, ) to do my dirty work. When I am a successful hunter, it is important to me to be able to give thanks to my prey for giving their life so that I may continue to live.

"Calcium (Ca) can come from potassium (K) with the interaction of hydrogen (H) according to the formula* 1H plus 19K equals 20Ca, or from magnesium with the interaction of oxygen in 12Mg plus 8O equals 20Ca."
("The Secret Life of Plants", NewYork:HarperCollins, 1973, p.285)

* My sincere apologies: imagine the numbers on the left as the atomic number on the lower left. I don't know how to assign it correctly in this review box).


Tompkins and Bird looked at the periodic table of the elements and properly transcribed the correct atomic nomenclature for each element. But then they confused chemical reactions with nuclear reactions in nonsensical equations that, however, seem perfectly reasonable to the vast majority of even college-educated nonscientists.
Their equations actually describe nuclear reactions that are impossible. But in any case, real nuclear reactions are carried out in nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors (and stars), not in plants. Their entire book is filled with pseudoscientific nonsense.
(Excerpt from "Challenging Nature" by Lee Silver, Paperback ed. 2007, p.229)



Sums it up pretty well. If you don't get the point, please take time to read essentials of chemistry, you won't regret it.
Instead I would like to recommend to you "The Private Life of Plants" by David Attenborough, which accompanied the BBC TV series of the same name.
I gobbled it up as a kid, and it sparked a passion for cultivating orchids and carnivorous plants for a while.

This book should be part of every Biology class in school nowadays. Quantum Physics has proven that every particle has consciousness, so why should it be so hard to believe that plants are capable of feelings and thought? Even close to 20 years after it was published, the book is still in a class by itself. I especially liked the section on how plants responded to different music genres, although mine seem to grow better to reggae than classical music.

My kids enjoy all the Magic School Bus books, especially the original ones by Joanna Cole. This one is great too.

This is a great educational series. The kids don't even know they are learning.

For those familiar with the "Magic Schoolbus" series, Mrs. Frizzle's adventures with her class all have a similar plotline. Mrs. Frizzle explains some scientific topic, whether it's the solar system, the dinosaurs, etc. and then lures her children onto her special schoolbus for an adventure. During the adventure the only child that is regularly singled out as the perpetual schlamatzel is Arnold, a boy who doesn't care much for adventures, thank you. In the end, the class is safe and has learned quite a lot, despite themselves. Even Arnold. Then there is a "letters" section in the back where readers wishing to complain about scientific inaccuracies (in this case, how dangerous it would be to be caught in a hurricane) are one-upped by already existing letters. The particular plotline in this hurricane obsessed book was not too dissimilar from the others, and was a lot of fun. I used to read these books to kids that I babysat back in my high school years, and certain types of children love them. The pages are always busy with text, speech bubbles, experiments that kids can do at home, and various factoids sprinkled hither and yon. I do wonder how long these series will last before it is regarded as hopelessly dated by the young. Please note that the review previous to my own was last written in 1997. Currently the show is doing well as a tv series, voiced by Lily Tomlin. Just the same, it would be very difficult to read this book to a group of kids. The books are relatively small and crammed with so much extra text that children will want to handle them one on one, rather than with a large group. Each book would pair well with a companion non-fiction book on the same topic.

I liked this book because it is a good way of showing what a hurricane looks like, how they work, what i can/can not do. It talls you how they are formed and where you can go to be safe from a hurricane.

Written in 1995, Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen's latest story begins where it ends - in Ms. Frizzle's classroom. And that's it. Nothing else happened. The Friz and her students simply went on a nice, leisurely field trip. They didn't end up miles beneath the earth's surface digging for rocks; nor did they travel to outer space to hitch a ride with a runaway comet; heck, they didn't even bother to travel backwards in time millions of years to observe ancient animal life.

End of review. Yes, that's correct. Ms. Frizzle has finally learned her lesson. The field trips she takes with her classroom of students are simply too wild, too wacky, too weird. How much did the children she instructs ever learn, anyhow?

But, of course, this reviewer is stretching the truth a little bit. True, the Friz's most recent field trip did begin and end inside her classroom. And, true, she didn't send her kids splashing through the local waterworks, or give them a guided tour inside the human body, or plunge them to the bottom of the ocean. So what did she do, you ask? All Ms. Frizzle accomplished was to drive through the eye of a hurricane, only to nearly get sent to the Land of Oz via a tornado. Oh, and one of her students - the ever-so-cautious Arnold - simply went on a high-seas adventure, battling wind, waves and surf with his trusted sidekick and faithful ally . . . a radio. And all of this happened before lunchtime in the school cafeteria!

Cole and Degen's seventh collaboration, "The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane," is certainly eventful, if not downright ambitious. And it starts innocently enough.

"It's a perfect day for our field trip to the weather station!" the Friz exclaims. "We'll meet a team of weather forecasters. We'll learn all about our atmosphere!"

"We hadn't finished our experiments about air," writes one of the students in Ms. Frizzle's class, "but with Frizzie at the wheel, we were going - ready or not!"

Anyone who's familiar with Cole and Degen's work understands, recognizes and appreciates the delectable havoc that ensues. Because a field trip isn't just a field trip when it comes to the Friz. To "learn about our atmosphere," it is most preferable to head straight for the source!

The kids in Ms. Frizzle's class - especially hapless Arnold (and his trusted sidekick, faithful ally . . . a radio) - discover all kinds of interesting facts about our planet's weather patterns. For example, most of our weather takes place in the troposphere, the layer of air that is closest to the surface of the earth. The children learn that air has weight. Did you ever wonder why the air in your attic is always so stuffy, yet the air in your basement is usually so cool? Can you tell the difference between cirrus, stratus and cumulus clouds? Just how many droplets does it take to form one single raindrop? And that's just scratching the surface of what this well-researched, well-written, well-illustrated book has to offer. All this, and the Friz hasn't even tackled that hurricane yet!

One would think that after six acclaimed adventures, Cole and Degen would begin to run out of steam. But with "Inside a Hurricane," that is clearly not the case. The writing and illustrations are every bit as inspired as those in previous efforts. Once again, Cole and Degen manage to explain facets of meteorology that are, at once, both funny and easily understandable. Every page is brimming with facts about weather, along with a dollop of humorous sidekicks to boot.

There is something in this book for everyone. One random fact I wasn't aware of explained the connection between thunder, lightning and - get this - opening up a soft drink can! And did you know that faraway places such as Australia and India are susceptible to hurricanes? Most people only associate these hazardous storms with places like the tropics, Florida or the East Coast.

As is the custom with all tales about the Magic School Bus, the final pages distinguish what was fact in the book and what was made up for story purposes. And, always the clever duo, Cole and Degen hint at what is to come in Ms. Frizzle's newest expedition. The buzz surrounding the Friz's eighth escapade into parts unknown is already beginning. In fact, you could say it's un-bee-lievable!

As Ms. Frizzle herself would say, "Keep together, class!"

Moving, inspiring, informative, beautifully illustrated, and very, very important. This is a true story about one family of mountain gorillas, living in the Virunga National Forest (currently occupied by rebel army forces) and their attempts to return a lost orphan to their fold. "Miza" will engage your mind and steal your heart. You cannot ignore the plight of these magnificent creatures whose lives hang in such delicate balance, threatened by deforestation, poaching, and infection and war. Their innocence, so similar to our own, is poignantly and simply stated: "When gorillas feel safe, they play."

Did you know that octopi are as smart as dogs? Or that Viperfish have 350 lights in their mouths? You'll find these and more interesting facts in SEA MONSTERS, the companion research guide to DARK DAY IN THE DEEP SEA. Discover old sea monster legends, info on squids, octopi, and other animals in the abyss. Also learn about prehistoric sea monsters, and exploration of the deep sea. I've met the Scientific Consultant for this book, Dr. Sonke Johnsen, he said that "The world will need thousands of new Marine Biologists, because we've only just begun to explore the mysteries of the deep sea." I'd highly recommend this book to all fans of the MAGIC TREE HOUSE series, especially kids ages 7-12, who are interested in Deep Sea animals.

Fiat Lux!
-Cybill

I bought this on advanced order for my grandson who upon receiving the book began reading at once. He is a huge Mary Pope Osborne follower and reported that the book was worth waiting for.

Honestly, this is the best photography text book I've read in a long time. It was the recommended book in a nature class this past summer. I agree with the instructor, its explanation of exposure is the best out there. I've recommended it to many people. The authors website is invaluable as well. I tried in the field what I learned and have now changed my technique. The author is succinct in his explanations and shares his personal views and technical data in a clear and meaningful way. Amazon also had the best price and I received it within 2 days.

It's not an easy task to write a book capable of nurturing the creative spirit, but this wonderful book by John and Barbara Gerlach succeeds in just such an endeavor. My photographs have improved already! This is a book that emphasizes field technique above all other aspects of photography. Get out of the house, into the wild, enjoy life, and take some great pictures. This book will show you how if you don't already know. Strongly recommended for amateur photographers, hobbyists, and semi-pros looking to perfect their technique and maybe learn a little about the world outside the home.

This book has so much useful information and great tips! I started reading this book last week and I can't put it down. It seems to go into more detail about many subjects than other photography books that i have read.ex. working of camera, metering your camera,tips for better photography, how to keep your lenses clean, all sorts of stuff you should know! Really Great Book! Its to bad that they didn't start writing books years ago! Oh- yea, and the pictures are really great too.

I just completed a nature/landscape photography class at an area community college. The intructor showed us the book and thought it was good. I certainly agree with him. I found the book to be FANTASTIC and well worth the money. By the way, by purchasing it through Amazon I got it much cheaper that I could have at other major book distributors directly.

I attended the Gerlach's seminar 15 to 20 years ago and learned more from them than any other seminar or book. And their newest book is a fantastic continuation of their exceptional teaching skills. Techniques are insightful. Photographs are gorgeous, always improving over the years. Text is clear and concise, EXCEPT: FIRE THE EDITOR. The first few chapters are a mixture of typographical and grammatical errors, the phrasing is disorganized and distracting to the point of being almost unreadable, and they ramble.

Buy the book, but skim very quickly the first few chapters.

This is a pretty good field guide even though I have to skip around through the pages to find things. (The color plates are not with the descriptions, which is like other Peterson guides) It has some photos with the descriptions, which is nice, and there are range maps.

Great if you like Botany and trees. I used for a field biology class.

This book covers eastern North America, including the Midwest and the South.

If you like having color plates in your field guide this one is not for you. I found it difficult to work with and hard to find information I needed. For a field guide it has too much written information looking to list various tees but not enough total tree information. For instance, the buds and leaves are shown but not the tree bark or the silhouettes with each. Silhouettes are provided for types but not referenced for the various species. One has to jump around with the guide looking for information on the same specie of tree. For identifying species in the field the book falls far short. Color plates are a limited number of diagrams and sketches instead of photos, a major weakness. On a positive note, greater emphasis in locating species with maps showing growth locations is provided.

I bought this for my husband for Christmas. He was blown away by all the information this little book contained. The only thing he said that he didn't care for was that some of the pictures were in black and white and he would have prefered all colored pictures.

The crisp pictures and simple language were just what I was looking for to teach my children about fall. This little book hit all the main attributes of the fall season and was enjoyed as much by my two year old as my four year old.

Let me note that it is a wordy book and that the symbolism is going to go right over the heads of your younger children. This is *definitely* a book for the older end of the 4-8 crowd, and maybe older still.

The answer as to "who is the stranger" is never clearly given, but it's clear, reading through the lines, that he's someone akin to Old Man Winter.

I really suggest you read this book, and possibly buy it.

This book has great pictures. The story is deep. I think little kids will like this book as well as adults.

This book is about a man who suddenly appeared on a road. He was invited by a family. They lived on a quiet farm. He was so awkward.
I don't think this book is a very good book. Wild animals came to him and they didn't care what he did to them. When I read this book, I thought he was an unknown alien. In autumn, the pumpkins grew very huge!
One day, when he climbed the highest hill on the Bailey farm, he looked to the north. The trees there were yellow and orange. But the Baileys' trees were green.
This book made me feel confused. He couldn't talk, or dress himself. He is one weird person.
If you think you like this book, read it, I rather say don't. Read this book if you think it is good. This book is easy to read. It might have difficult words in it. I would say that anybody can read this.

Chris VanAllsburg has created another literary masterpiece. He gives his reader the opportunity to think about the implications of fall never occurring. This is an excellent tool for teachers to use when teaching the concept of anthropomorphism. As always, the illustrations are magnificent!

Other reviewers have used the word "strange" to discribe this work. I think the words "haunting" and "mysterious," probably hit closer to the mark. At least they do for me. This is one of those works that will certainly make you think. More importantly, it will make, or should make, the young reader think. That is the key to the fascination of the text of this work. Beyond doubt, the illustrations are quite wonderful, even beautiful. I did note that some of the youth reviews here were not overly enthusiastic. I have found that many young people do indeed "get" the story, while others do not. Some simply do not have the capacity to wonder, to imagine. This is sort of sad in a way, but on the other hand, it is works such as this, that if read with an adult who does have that spark of wonder in them, might allow some of that wonder to rub off. I like a good fantasy and a good mystery, ergo, I liked this book and do recommend it. The art work and stark writing alone are worth it.

This seller was totally accurate about the description of this book, it was in pristine condition.

I've never even heard of Mr. Robert Leo Smith. Is he a Nobel prize winner? The world's most renowned ecologist? What is so special about this book that it can justify a whopping $120 price tag? It's no secret college textbook authors reap from a captive market in students who are forced to buy texts for required reading, but this takes the cake. And it will lead me to find other courses that don't require a student's entire paycheck to unearth the secrets.

a very readable text...interesting, well written, and full of colorful diagrams. a good introduction to a discipline i had taken for granted.

This is a must-read text for anyone interested in a general overview of ecology. The chapters are thorough yet concise and the topics are laid out in a logical progression.