Science Nature Books

i got this book for my then-3yo daughter, who asked a ton about how germs work and how our bodies fight them. it was "kinda" enough for her, but then we got cell wars, and that is really a fantastic book. where this book can be hand-wavy, that one is much more detailed and really left her feeling like she understood what was happening in her body. she's 4 now and still rattles off information from cell wars, but we haven't read this book but once or twice since we got the other.

Germs Make Me Sick by Melvin Berger is one of the best books I've seen to educate primary grade children about viruses and bacteria and how they can make you sick -- and how you can make yourself well again. Sometimes, your Doctor will have to send a swab or a drop of your blood to a lab to see just the right way to make you well if your illness is caused by a bacteria or protect you from some diseases caused by a virus.

I am amazed at how well this scientific information is presented for young readers, and the follow-up with a section on The Rules for Good Health make this a must buy for parents.

Every illustration in this book is a cartoon, and in many of the illustrations a cat, dog, lion, or some other animal will make some kind of random comment. This was pretty funny, but not quite as funny as the cartoons in another Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science book called Digging Up Dinosaurs.

According to this book, the sticky saliva in your mouth catches germs and prevents them from going inside your body to cause further damage. I didn't know that. Hope all the information is correct.

From all this fuss about "germ theory" is it just that: a theory. Pasteruians want us to believe that disease is caused by invisible tiny animals, well that's a religion if I ever hear of one. And you're welcome to believe that if you want.

I want my children to believe the biblical account of disease: it is caused by sin. Whenever my kids get sick I just tell them that they should be ashamed of themselves and their filthy, sinful thoughts. If they were really sincere in their prayers they wouldn't need their supposed "medicine".

I can't believe that such materialist science indoctrination texts are readily available in schools. What's next? handing out guns at the door?

My children, now 19 and 17, loved this book. I guess they were about 6 and 4 when I got it. Whenever they were sick, we read this book and a Sesame Street book called "It's No Fun to be Sick." Reading these books became a comforting ritual, as well as an easy way to learn some basic science.

If you haven't stumbled into Bill McKibben's work, do. He is very good at asking questions and clearly explicating his search for answers. THE END OF NATURE explores the unavoidable truth that the wild only exists at the whim of humankind these days. Whether we micromanage a game park, use a wetland as a water filter, or call an area "wilderness" and more or less keep our hands off, everything everywhere is impacted by our activities. A thoughtful and not unhopeful book, this one will make you see "nature" differently.

As relavent today as it was in 1989 and when combined with Deep Economy gives you something to ponder.

This would've been a five-star review if this book were about 10-12 years newer than it is. In some ways, McKibben's extended essay on global warming has aged very well. His central thesis that nature is ended (not destroyed but removed of majesty or even neutered) by the overwhelming pressures of human industrial society and human overpopulation is as relevant now as it ever was, the truth of this argument more evident every day. And global warming, the central thread of his argument, is even more pressing today, even though we in the United States are doing even less about it. Though some of his worst fears have yet to come true, the reality of global climate change is bad enough, as underscored by the recent report on rapid climate change in arctic regions.

In other ways, though, the book seems dated. A lot of what McKibben writes about is uncertain. "It could be that in 50-100 years..." or "our models are very uncertain but..." and so on. The last 15 years have seen a lot of research in this area and a a great deal of refinement of our climate models, such that we know have a much more certain picture of the realities of climate change. This is real. It is happening, and it's happening quickly. Unfortunately, the greater uncertainty in our understanding of this at the time McKibben was writing undercuts his message somewhat, that we must learn to curb our desires and live more humbly if we wish to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. Were his argument bolstered by more modern research, I think he would have a much easier time outlining some real steps we as a society could take to deal with global warming.

Still, the issues McKibben raises and the ideas he presents for how we can deal with them are as pressing now as they were in 1989, perhaps even more so. Anyone who is at all concerned about global warming, the environment, or even just living beyond the next 30 years or so would do well to read this book.

Bill McKibben's beautifully written and cogently reasoned analysis of how humans are damaging the world we share with all other life is must-reading. He shares with readers a respect for Nature---truly wild, untouched Nature---that is personal, emotional, reverential, and spiritual. That respect is contagious. We need to hear voices like his. His book strengthens our will to take the difficult but essential steps to slow global warming. He urges us to be good stewards of the earth.

The good news: "The End of Nature" was a truly prophetic book when it was published in 1989. Eloquent and well-intentioned, it was one of the first books aimed at a general audience to discuss global warming and deep ecology. It may even have influenced public opinion, if not public policy.

The bad news: "The End of Nature" is meandering, journalistic, and full of 20-year old science. Even worse, it's main Big Idea doesn't seem true. McKibben believed that man's ability to change the climate would eventually make it impossible for anyone to see nature as quasi-sacred and independent of human meddling. In reality, man's respect for nature will surely increase, not diminish, as the earth warms up. Coastlines will disappear, hurricanes slam into cities, and summers sizzle. Whatever else global warming will do, it will humble mankind.

The bottomline: "The End of Nature" has earned a place in the canon of environmental literature alongside classics like "Silent Spring." Every environmental library should have a copy of it. However, there's no compelling reason why general readers in 2007 should devote much time to it.

This book was very good. It is informative, but easy to read and understand. It mentions modern issues, and also mentions how past environmental acts have influenced certain acts today. A good, educational read that anyone interested in the environment as a career should consider.

I found this book to be extremely informative while explaining how forces make things move in a way my 3 year old granddaughter understands while learning myself!!

The pictures are awsome, and keeps any age children's attention. All of the books in the Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science series have been a valuable tool in teaching and entertaining in my home.

my elder son (4 1/2) loves these books. they are fun, simple and educational. these books provide little experiments you can do at home.

Quammen does an exceptional job of explaining why biogeography should be important to you. He offers a scientific, historical, and personal narrative. As a professional biologist, I like the accuracy in bringing theory to a general audience. For students of biology, if reading MacArthur and Wilson's paper left you a little perplexed, this is the book that will smooth out those rough edges and assure that you "get it". The book probably holds little interest for people who aren't serious science buffs, but even for interested laypersons, there is enough of a narrative running through the text to make it an easy, sensible read. Suffers from flaws of historical perspective, but none so blatant as to make this text unworthy. Highly recommended.

This is the first book I've read by Quammen, an imminently talented journalist who perfectly balances the information and writing style of the book. He follows a chronological progression of island biogeography from Darwin through Jared Diamond (who became hugely famous shortly after the release of this book). Quammen's travelogues are excellent, combining a sympathetic, open perspective that is adventurous and engaged. Late in the book, Quammen describes a climb to the nest of a Mauritius kestrel: "When I'm thirty feet up, a tree branch flicks off my glasses, which drop to the ground. I could go down and retrieve them, sure, that would be sensible, but I'd fall too far behind the cheerful maniacs...
'Do you trust this vine?' I call up to Jones. Gangly but tall, he must weigh two hundred pounds, and from this angle I can appreciate the size of his feet.
'Not greatly.'
We ratchet our way upward, slowly, on the cliff face. It isn't Half Dome but it's more perilous than the average birdwatching stroll. We rise out above the valley. As we move beyond the treetops, I give myself an explicit mental reminder: Fall from here and you don't go home. Finally, Jones and I catch up with Lewis on a narrow rock shelf, like a window ledge ten stories above Lexington Avenue...
I gaze out at the panorama--the forested canyon below us, the deer ranch beyond, and the cane plantation beyond that, all spreading westward for five miles to the crescent of beach and then the great turquoise plane of the Indian Ocean." (562-3)
It's Quammen's excitement and sensitivty that inspire the reader to continue and to care, to take notice of humanity's influence: carving nature into islands, resulting in astonishing rates of extinction and ecosystem decay. But Quammen urges us to cling to hope, not despair, because "besides being fruitless it's far less exciting than hope, however slim." (636)

"Islands are where species go to die." - David Quammen, author of THE SONG OF THE DODO

This book is all about the birth, maturation, and real world applications of the science of island biogeography as it relates to the circumstances of species isolation and diversification and subsequent decline and extinction. Here, "island" means not only the obvious - a bit of land surrounded by water - but any habitat separated from the rest of the world by a geographic barrier which its resident species are unlikely to cross. "Island", then, can refer, for examples, to a lake, a remnant of rain forest surrounded by clear-cut, a temperate mountaintop surrounded by desert, a national park hemmed in by human habitation, a cave, an expanse of jungle bordered by wide rivers, or a literal island in the sea.

Island biogeography inexorably leads the reader to the concept of conservation biology and viable-population theory. You see, the rampant human population is cutting the world's diverse ecosystems into little bits - islands - thus dooming countless species living within them - especially large vertebrates - to eventual destruction.

THE SONG OF THE DODO is a lucid, erudite, troubling, and extensively researched piece of science writing by journalist David Quammen. It's biggest fault is that he just about beats the subject to death. Where, perhaps, just a few examples of past species extinction (the Dodo or the Micronesian honeyeater) and present pending extinction (the indri of Madagascar or the Concho water snake in Texas) would suffice, the author includes at least a dozen more. But, as Quammen is such an excellent writer who feels strongly about this important subject, one cannot award less than five stars. Amidst the record of both realized and threatened animal extirpations, David even manages to be humorous when his narrative becomes a personal travelogue as he journeys to exotic places to observe the pending carnage for himself, as when tripping face-first into a spiderweb on Guam ("My worst nightmares feature tarantulas the size of badgers") or getting mugged in Rio de Janeiro. About the last incident, when confronted at the local police station with the one (of three) of his attackers unlucky enough to get caught, David quips:

"He's looking at five years (imprisonment) I'm told. Cinco anos. Cinco, no kidding? that's a lot of anos, I say. Probably I should feel terrible for the young thug, on grounds of socioeconomic extenuation, but in the weakness of the moment my liberal knee fails to jerk and cinco anos sounds fine."

The most glaring negative is the lack of photographs, both of the various creatures under discussion and the scientists, past and present, who've contributed to, and fought over, the theory and practice of island biogeography.

Recently, I saw AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, a documentary on global warming. Taken together with THE SONG OF THE DODO, my pessimism is kindled to a white heat. I don't have a high opinion of my fellow man: Homo sapiens is a rapacious species ungenerous to the other life forms riding Mother Earth. We blithely defecate on our own doorstep. At some point, the planet, which will ultimately endure, will turn to Man and say, "I'll show you!" Then, as Quammen puts it:

"When we ourselves do go (extinct), the sparrows and the cockroaches and the rats and the dandelions that survive us should eventually give rise to a new inflorescence of diversity. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that represents a gloomy scenario or a cheery one."

This is by far the most desultory, fluff-filled history of biological evolution that I've ever read. Generally, I am not a skimmer of Quammen's work, and in fact often enjoy his wit and lithesome prose, but after only a dozen pages or so into Dodo I found myself flipping page after page looking for something substantive, looking for meat. In one word, the pace is SLOW. Over and over again in the margins I found myself scribbling "Go! Go! We'd advanced this far thirty pages ago!" But on the plus side I suppose if you are looking for a book to practice your speed reading, Dodo may be it: you can flip ten pages at a throw and hardly miss a thing.

Quammen's book is a rare bird--a clearly written science book that doesn't condescend to readers. It's long enough to go fairly deep, and deep enough to be interesting: it's on my short list of favorites.

As other reviewers point out, the history of squabbles wears a little thin, but neither Darwin nor anyone else sticks in my memory as having been unfairly kneecapped. In fact, the only faintly negative impression I had was of the excessive care Quammen takes in presenting some fairly basic math. Highly recommended.

Brian Walker, Program Director Resilience Alliance and a scientist with the CSIRO. Canberra Australia, has, with the assistance of science writer David Salt, written the best and most straightforward work on ecological resilience entirely suitable for a wide audience of readers; activists, teachers, scientists from any number of disciplines, interested in gaining a familiarity with a study area that is of critical importance in this present world of catastrophe, forever changing with the calamitous onset of climate change and where stategies of adaptation are quite indequate mechanisms for survival in the white-water world we will have to navigate.

It is not a scientific treatise but a work from which all interested readers will benefit substantially no matter what their background or credentials. This is a twentyfirst century production coauthored with a skilled science writer and a model for any NGO or scientific group who wish to influence and inform policy makers with something they can readiliy understand.. Resilience capability and building such capacity is perhaps the best, but still uncertain, way to buffer social-ecological systems--your everyday environment--from unpredictable, disastrous events and accompanying change. Adaptation and models based on orthodox science are unfortunately inadequate to meet such crises. I recommend this book to any concerned person no matter their level of understanding. They will find something new and enlightening here.

This is a gem of an educational book. Mixing case studies with elaborating chapters on key concepts, it's as a good a volume as I have found for teaching undergraduates, graduates, and practitioners (farmers, factory managers, investors) the core ideas needed to restore a sustainable social-ecological system.

Highlights for me:

+ Optemization is a false premise, simplifies complex systems we do not understand, with the result that we end up causing long-term damage.

+ Resilience thinking is systems thinking. I cannot help but think back to all of the excellent work in the 1970's and 1980's--the authors were simply a quarter century ahead of their time.

+ In a nut-shell, resilient system can absorb severe disturbance.

+ System resilience is affected by context, connections across scales of time and space, and current system state in relations to threshholds.

+ Fresh water, fisheries, and topsoil depletion are major failures.

+ Drivers of environmental degradation are poverty, willful excessive consumption, and lack of knowledge (from another book, I recall that changes to the Earth that used to take 10,000 years now take three, one reason we need real-time science).

+ Key concepts are threshholds and adaptive cycles. Adaptive cycles have four phases: Rapid Growth; Conservation; Release; and Reorganization.

+ Redundancy is NOT a dirty word (just as intelligence--decision support--should not be a dirty word within the United Nations)

+ Ecological networks cannot be understood nor nurtured with a tight linking and understanding of the social networks that interact with the ecological networks.

+ Subsidies are a form of social denial, as they subsidize unsustainable practices and prevent adaptation and change.

+ Lovely--absolutely lovely--chart on page 89 about time-scales of climate and natural disasters like major fires.

+ One size does not fit all--solutions for one social-ecological network, e.g. in the USA, will not be the same as for another, e.g. in Norway.

+ Diversity is the key to regeneration.

+ Governances must be able to see and act upon key intervention points.

+ A Resilient world would be characterized by:

1. Diversity
2. Ecological variables
3. Modularity
4. Acknowledgement of slow variables
5. Tight feedbacks
6. Social capital
7. Innovation
8. Overlap in governance
9. Ecosystem services

Within this small and very easy to absorb book one finds a great annotated bibliography of recommended readings, a fine reference section, and a very solid index.

Other books that come to mind as complements to this one (limited to ten links by Amazon):
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink

A MUST read for environmentalists. And for business, community and anyone willing to adapt the thinking to their situation. Brian and David have done a superb job in translating resilience theory and its close ties to complex adaptive systems. I have been looking for a book to recommend to my clients and students and this is it. I would also strongly recommend that the 'old guard' sustainability brigade have a look at this. The strategies that sustainability largely pursues are unsustainable. Resilience thinking is a more accurate path for us to head toward something that resembles sustainability. Well done.

This book is Latour's actor network theory in another guise, with the physicalization of Kuhn's paradigm shift thrown in for good measure. It is a very interesting book on an emerging way to look at environmental crises (note, not the environmental crisis. We seriously need local knowledge and local experience to manage each individual ecosystem).

My major issues with this book are twofold. One is that it is not well written, though not altogether poorly written, you can simply tell when the science writer came in to jazz things up. Secondly, the authors spend a little too much time trying to convince the reader that resilience thinking is NEW, DIFFERENT, SUBVERSIVE, and the like. We get, on page 29, something that I just cannot stand: a little briefer than brief history of challenge to dogma. Galileo spoke out about the Copernican model (which was still perfect circles, Kepler had it right but Galileo ignored him) and the church shot him down. Darwin dared to say species change and the world exploded! Now, we, the humble new scientists bring you a new challenge to the dogma of ecology today. Give me a break! I would have thought a science writer on the team would have had the experience to leave out this trite nonsense. Just tell me about your idea and spare me the drama! Sorry, but poor history of science is a real pet peeve. :-)

But either way, this is still an important book that should be read by ecology students, politicians, resource managers, and anyone interested in new ideas. The case studies are really informative and clear, and the message is properly urgent

This is a great book. I've read several books on this topic, and so far, they have all had a similar issue: They are written by people who are scientists first, writers second. This book has two authors. One is a scientist and the other is a science writer. This made for a well put-together, understandable explanation of complex adaptive systems, which are what ecosystems are currently understood to be.

The authors have done a few things to make the book great. First, they have broken the topic down into a set of subtopics, with one chapter explaining each subtopic. At the end of each chapter is a summary of important points so it's clear what the authors are hoping you get out of the chapter. Each chapter is then followed by a case study that is used to illustrate the ideas just covered.

If you are looking for an introductory book on ecosystems and how humans affect their ability to maintain themselves, this is the book to read. The authors also provide several good resources at the end of the book if you would like to expand your knowledge further.

Here is a great book I think we all should read. Steingraber's thesis is relatively simple: environmental factors play a much larger role in the increase of cancer than hitherto assumed by individuals, public health officials, and regulators, and we should act accordingly. Her argument is well-researched and takes into account many of the pollutants we find in our air, water, earth, and bodies, and is presented intermittently as narrative and analysis.

I like the structure of the book, the organization into chapters titled "time," "space," "war," and the like. I also like her alternating personal narrative (she is a bladder-cancer survivor, a native of Illinois, a graduate student, a researcher--we find out lots of things) with the cold hard facts and sometimes the fuzzy facts of cancer research and regulation of chemicals. The only thing that holds me back, which is why I gave it four stars, is that the book is a bit too long for my taste at almost 400 pages--I, a layperson, could have done with a bit less detail (though I understand she's covering her bases) and a bit more politics (though I understand she's being careful, not naming too many names).

The best chapter is the final one: if you come across this book and have other things to do, at least read the last chapter--most convincing is her deconstruction of the public policy of 'personal responsibility': sure, some cancers may be associated with personal lifestyle, but more important are the things we have little individual control over, such as the air we breathe, the land our kids play on, the streams we swim in. Blame, Steingraber implies/states (she's not always so outspoken), lies less with us citizens, taxpayers, cancer patients, than with the companies that manufacture products and byproducts that may be carcinegous and are simply allowed to do so until proven otherwise, and the regulators (our government, at all levels) who let them do so. Bravo--it needed to be said, and I'm glad Steingraber did it.

There's an image that stands out from this book, that encapsulates its heart and soul... the image of a petri dish with a deceased nun's "immortal" breast cells. These cells live on in cancer research, continuing to divide and offer themselves up, though the nun has since passed on. Regarding these cells, Steingraber makes the comment, "This is my body broken for you."

A body broken for us. That is Steingraber herself, who was diagnosed with cancer, as a young woman still in college. A heart broken for us. Again, it is Steingraber, as she loses her best friend to cancer and reveals some of her most intimate thoughts about the experience. And it is all the bodies that still pile up in brokenness... one in three Americans now get cancer, she reminds us.

It is also the brokenness of animals, soil, earth, water, and air--each of which she examines with a keen scientific eye, loads of research, and surprising poignancy.

Reading this book, one questions not so much why we, or our fathers, or our sisters get cancer, but why we as a society let this brokenness go on and think we can be immune from its effects. I wish that we'd all read this book and begin to put the pieces together again.

Anyone who has ever wondered about the environmental causes of cancer will be fascinated by this book. Steingraber is a gifted writer and a solid scientist (a rare but good combination) and she weaves scientific research and personal story together in a skillful way. The gist is that damning results from initial studies on the environmental causes of cancer need further study, but when all these initial studies are brought together like this it surely seems we are our own worst enemy when it comes to these terrible illnesses.

Because of the immense importance of the subject matter- chemical contamination of our environment, this book was written for a general audience and Ms Steingraber's writing style flows with easy to understand, but alarming expose' of the hazards of chemicals in our environment.

It is a beautiful continuation of Rachel Carson's work of environmental responsibility and the examination of the dangers of chemical contamination of our shared world.
Ms Carson's famous book, "Silent Spring", published in 1962, opened up to the public the hideous side-effects of chemicals, i.e., cancer causing, biome pollution and disruption, and killing of non-targeted species. Remember the Brown Pelican and Bald Eagle almost being killed-off from DDT poisoning? Carson's work eventually led to the banning of that harmful chemical, but as Ms Steingraber so expertly points out, there is a plethora of other dangerous chemicals on the market that tests have shown should not be.

Sandra Steingraber wrote her book over 35 years after "Silent Spring" and having the benefit of a huge amount of accumulated evidence of chemical side-effects and personal experience with the serious health problems caused by chemical contamination of our environment, she has put together a powerful indictment of the irresponsibility of industry and government alike in their continuing agenda of down-playing the dangers of chemicals and this constitutes one of the most irresponsible and insidious snake-oil scams ever perpetrated against life.

Huge corporate profits from the sale of deadly, often-time untested or inadequately tested chemicals purchase lackadaisical government over-sight and slick advertising on the "benefits" of chemicals.

This book is well researched and concise, yet will give simple explanations of such topics as "biomagnification"- the accumulation of chemicals the higher up the food chain we go. Most importantly, is the topic of "risk as recklessness" in taking dangerous chemicals to market without proper safety testing, but especially allowing known carcinogens to remain on the market long after they have proven to be harmful, hence, government complicity.

And the governments stand on this? They publish guidelines for changing one's "lifestyle" to help reduce chemical exposure! In other words, they attempt to shift responsibility for health on to the public who has no control over or proper warnings of where these chemicals are and most ludicrous of this is the fact that the spread of chemicals cannot be controlled once released into the environment, so they're everywhere and unavoidable. A good summation of this irresponsible nonsense is quoted from the anthropologist, Martha Balshem: [In the end, Balshem came to believe the lesson she was transmitting-"accept authority and accept blame"-was the wrong one]. (p 262) Indeed!

The Epilog starting on page 285 is a good resource guide for finding out more about chemicals, government agencies "responsible" for monitoring their use, where chemicals are concentrated, educational materials, etc.

Sandra Steingraber has put together a beautiful, important and educational statement in this book and it is one of the most profound publications of it's type since "Silent Spring". I found it to be a great honor to Rachel Carson's legacy- thank you Ms Steingraber!

This is a powerful and moving account that dissects, piece by piece, the system which allows cancer-causing chemical agents to be released within the United States, primarily by corporations.

Cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber is a poet at heart, and a scientist by trade. For me, the weakest parts of the book were the ones in which the poet takes over, speaking in deeply personal dramatic tones that, quite frankly, made me a little uncomfortable.

Much more interesting is the scathing indictment of the processes by which chemicals are regulated in the United States. With impeccable logic, Steingraber frightens the bejeezus out of us by demonstrating that, when it comes to protecting the environment and public health, no one is driving the bus.

The vast majority of chemicals released into the environment have not been held up to proper scrutiny. For chemicals that are suspected of causing cancer or other problems, there is an almost impossibly high burden of proof put on those who seek to have the chemicals banned.

Steingraber builds the case, simultaneously removing all doubt that certain chemicals are responsible for cancer outbreaks in certain areas while showing us that the case cannot be proved to the satisfaction of the regulatory agencies (who are themselves heavily influenced by the offending companies).

A detective story, an expose, and a lyrical narrative all in one, Steingraber has given concrete form to the sometimes-vague notion that Corporate America is behind many of our country's biggest threats.

This book is one of the worst biology books I have ever read. The descriptions are very confusing and the questions at the end of the sections are meaningless. I would not recommend this book for high school biology when there are so many better texts on the market.

I had to use this book for my college I and II classes. I must say the book is very complete. Sometimes written on a high level but then again some topics of biology are hard in general like genetics and animal physiology. For really good test preparation questions, I was recommended to also get:
The Ultimate Study Guide for Biology: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations (Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3). These three guides made me life much easier because the questions showed me what to expect on my actual college exams.

the main problem with this book is that you need a huge vocabulary to understand what its talking about. This book is not adapted for high school students. I was astonished how long and pointless the descriptions are. Although the labs are very good, it took my class several readings to understand the material. The main problem with this book is that its not written with kids in mind. I liked the materials at the back of the book (such as, how to use a microscope) as these are very useful, however I am not impressed with the contents of the book itself. It is extremely heavy and bulky and contains much unneded information. Although it has its' pros, there are too many cons.

This book really helped me with AP Bio and i really got into it! It focused on all the important information and gave great examples! its a new edition and is updated. go out and buy this book, if you read it thoroughly it will give you ultimate preparation or a good background in Biology!