Science Nature Books

It gets into a lot of really science-y stuff for a kids book, but its still a hoot and a holler. If I could get all the books in this series in a boxed set I would because they're so funny and will actually teach kids.

I really thought that this book would appeal to my 2 year old, who I am potty training. I was wrong. This book is really more for a 5 year old or possibly older. After all, what school age kid doesn't think that farting is hilarious. The pictures are great, but the story isn't appealing for small kids.

I was dissappointed with this book. While it starts out ok, it quickly deteriates. Imagine, telling children to go ahead, let that fart out. Not that I think a child can't fart, but, what about some common courtesy to those around that may have to smell that fart. This book was also too technical for children or at least not written to a reasonable level. Not Recommended, keep looking, there are better books on the subject, ones that will review the subject in an educational but entertaining manner.

This is a great book! The entire family will enjoy it! My husband and I even laugh at it. It's great and the kids LOVE it!

We love this book!!! After my daughter-in-law got over the initial shock of the books' title, my son read it to our 17-month old granddaughter--and we all enjoyed the book tremendously!! Right now, our grandbaby thinks it is hilarious to fart, and "The Gas We Pass..." teaches that every living thing passes gas. I enjoyed the addition of the scientific-fart-trivia, as well--That was an excellent idea to explain why the body passes gas, and what happens when we eat various foods. Our little sweetie is just now getting familiar with the potty chair,and this book will certainly be a "must read" as she gets more involved with training.

While this book appears to be thin, it has many illustrations of edible plants found in different parts of the world. No one likes to think that they would need to forage, but if it were necessary, this would be a good resource to have. I feel confident that I could locate several plants to sustain myself with if the circumstances arose.

While the book informs us about edible plants, it warns that there are similar plants that are poisonous -- and doesn't give any description for them! I'd have to be really, really hungry before I would risk using this book.

Good little book that covers quite a lot. Gives good information on those plants in the wild that can be used for food. Along with this it gives excellent clear color close up pictures of the plants with a description of their botanical structures, habitats and distribution, edible parts and other uses such as making baskets, rope, medicines, etc. Also gives good photo descriptions of the most dangerous and poisonous plants and how to identify and recognize them.

lots of good info if you spend a lot of time in woods ,or if you don't and find yourself lost ,this book might keep you alive.

The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild PlantsThis book is very informative on edible wild plants. Recommended to those who are serious about wilderness survival and disaster preparedness.

My children love these books I didn't know if they would like them because they don't have alot of pictures. They just can't get enough

waited for a month to receive the book.

This book is fabulous.
One of the reasons I like it is because it talked about fires, earthquake and natural disaster. Another reason is because it was near our city! The last reason I liked it is because they lost their city but still had hope. I learned some exellent facts. I learned the fire burned 28,000 buildings! They had half a millon people there. The earthquake was called "The Great Shake". It was one of the biggest earthquakes ever! I would recommend this book for three reasons. The characters are fun. Jack likes the realistic and Annie likes the magic. The second reason is the excitement and learning wonderful facts.
Earthquake in the Early Morning is a excellent book.

My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

I like this book because it is interesting.
It keeps you wondering whats going to happen next.
It is also very funny.
So you might want to read this book.

That's not entirely fair, but...this is a book of essays, not a natural history or gardening book. It is about Pollan's perceptions of nature and landscape, through the gateway of his garden. He does only enough research to flesh out his musings with historical fact and literary reference - and he is very selective. He leans heavily on Thoreau, and neglects wider scholarship. His essays bog down in pedantic and turgid language (he abuses at least one 5-syllable word per essay). The writing is much like Bill Bryson's, about whom, I'm also kinda lukewarm. I didn't love it, although there are good bits - the story of his first rose plantings was interesting, and inspired me to drop a few snobby old roses in the sod.

Michael Pollan's writing is full of metaphors. This book about nature as a human construct was enjoyable to read. I found some parts frustrating because I like the romantic idea of nature even if it is just a human construct. But overall I would recommend this book for a quick read.

I loved this book. It is written in the spirit of earth that author obviously is in love with. The book is divided into four seasons: spring summer,fall and winter. Each of the seasons has it's own unique characteristic that follows ancient tradition of preparing soil, sowing,cultivating, weeding, harvesting and winter nothingness.
However if reader looks for practical advises, he or she will not find it here. It is a wonderfull read for all the nature lovers.

I picked up this book when I didn't have my own dirt to get my hands into, and I was hoping to garden vicariously through Pollan's essays.

There are a lot of lessons to be found. For instance, the chapter on roses explains how human intervention and selective breeding brought about a huge difference between the technicolor tear-dropped buds we see for sale at the grocery store and the rounder and simpler flowers that Shakespeare and his contemporaries wrote about.

Throughout the book Pollan makes the case for uniting culture and nature in the garden rather than pitting them against each other as Thoreau (the naturist) did in his writings or suburban landscaping (very culture-centered) implies today. It is an interesting argument worth considering, but by the fourth part when I found it repeated for the umpteenth time without anything new to add I quit reading the book.

Pollans description of what is a green thumb and the sysiphean art of mowing reminded me how therapeutic gardening can be and why it cures depression. Thank you Michael for making me look at my roses in a totally different way. You will love this book if you tend to think in pictures and love the art and hard work of gardening.

As a Certified Arborist, I was very eager to read this book. I spend most of my working hours aloft, in trees, so this book was right up my alley (tree). Unfortunately, the author's lack of interesting character development and a rambling narrative style made me not like this book, at all. It was tough to make it through. Indeed, what little character development there was made me dislike most of the climbers in this book. I was especially annoyed with the individuals who illegally climbed the big trees as younger men and then, once they had made some measurements and published a few scientific papers on that subject, soon became reactionary elitists who kept the trees to themselves and their colleagues via secret maps and such. What a bunch of garbage. Yes, only they (conveniently) deemed themselves worthy of climbing the tall trees. Also, as a skilled rope climber these past many years, I found myself laughing out loud at the terms this author used to describe well known climbing techniques. Double crotching became "sky walking," lanyard ropes/second lines became "spider lines" and other such silliness. In all fairness, since the author is a recreational climber it is fairly obvious that he is using the terms that he learned from his climbing instructors. Those instructors saw a way to cash in on the public's interest in tree climbing and so they took the techniques from the pros and gave them their own more romantic/picturesque names. Another annoying thing is that the true pioneers in our business are missing, entirely, from this book. A reader of this book, new to tree climbing, would think that climbing began in the 1980's with the rec climbing movement. In reality, professional arborists and big timber workers have been roping their way up trees before that. It would have been nice to see some of the true climbing pioneers like Beranek and his contemporaries mentioned in this book. All in all this book was a disappointing, boring read.

This is a really wonderful book. Rather than repeat all the accolades and special details, I'll just relay my personal experience.

My then-girlfriend and I read this book together in the summer of 2007 and fell in love with the book and the people and the trees. It inspired us to seek a redwood grove to get married in.

On August 2, 2008, we were married inside an ancient, living redwood tree hollowed out by fire. It was a small, intimate ceremony - we and our 14 invited guests fit inside the tree with room to spare. We had a fantastic time!

I got this book as a gift and was non-plussed. A whole book about people climbing trees? But once I started I couldn't put it down. Terrific writing, great characters and a really compelling story to tell. It was almost enough to make me want to go climb a tree myself. The only complaint I have is that I would have loved to see a few more sketches, or a few pictures, or something to really make plain just how large the trees are for those of us who can't just head off to California to see for ourselves.

Loved the content but found the style of writing to be better suited to essays. This booked seems like it was rushed to print before Preston had come up with a suitable way to tell this story. When it gets to the part where he is involved directly with the characters it is more coherent but the chapters that tell the story of each character is better as a stand alone essay. It just seems like a book that is half baked....not crazy...just not ready. Where was the editor?

Unless you really really really love botany and tree climbing, I'd skip this one. Instead I recommend 'The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed' by John Vaillant.

I bought this book for my grandson who just started second grade. He said science was his least favorite subject. He was reading the book by himself when I visited. He loves to read and he likes the book.

The concept of day and night is discussed in grades 2 and 3. This book is a great supplemental text to help increase children's understanding of this concept. Great text and pictures.

My five-year-old grandson likes this book and my two-year old granddaughter looks along. Answers some of his gazillion questions in a manageable way.

If your child is interested in science, they will enjoy this book. It combines colorful drawings with actual photographs to explane the earth's rotation in a simple, understandable way. It is also a part of the Harcourt reading series for second grade, and a wonderful addition to your home library.

My favorite kind of book. This is such a rewarding book - so much information, such insights, interesting case studies, lots of documentation in the form of scientific studies. I loved this book so much that after reading the library copy, I asked to have it as a birthday present, and then turned around and bought two copies of it as a CD to give my son-in-law and a friend to listen to in the car. I am so grateful to the author for all that I learned and the growth I felt in my understanding of the animal and human world.

Temple Grandin truly has a gift to see the world through the eyes of animals--and humans. Somehow she manages to be both empathetic in her point of view, yet objective in her reporting, which enables her to offer us this fascinating text on the subtleties of animal response and behavior. What a great book. Her non-academic tone makes the style fluent and enjoyable to read, and every few pages there emerges a "Wow" moment when she reveals some truth about the psychology of animals in general, including humans. I liked this book a lot and would recommend it to anyone who is studying or interested in animal (or human) behavior.

Please do not use this book as a guide to understanding your dog. Dr. Grandin does not appear to know anything about dogs or even like them very much.

This is the most fascinating book I have ever read. The amazing Temple Grandin takes two subjects: autism and animal behavior,and draws comparisons with remarkable insight. She brings the world of animal behavior into sharp focus with examples and explanations and makes it easy for the lay reader to understand. She and coauthor, Catherine Johnson, write with a conversational prose that makes even the most difficult concepts easy to grasp. Every chapter elicits a "Wow".

Although the dry title may put some people off because it sounds clinical and cerebral, this absolutely exciting book holds a plethora of facts and wonders about the animals we come into contact with on a daily basis. A real eye-opener!

- C.A. Wulff, author of Born Without a Tail

This is a terrific book. I learned about animal behavior and autism. I am a science teacher and I gained understanding of my autistic students and my pets and insight to share with students regarding animal behavior.

The photographs in this book are beautiful. My favorite, by far, is the one on the cover. I sure hope this wasn't photo-shopped- it would take the magic out of it.

I bought this book with some others that I needed, but without being able to page through it. I was hoping for a book with few words but great photos that show the different aspects of pumpkins and growing to share with my preschool special education classroom before our visit to the pumpkin farm. What a happy surprise to find out it was Perfect! It contained some photos of planting that I had no pictures of yet. Plus the written text accentuated the photos. It was short enough that I didn't have to "paraphrase" to my class. Excellent choice!

Pumpkins is a beautifully done book for children, ages 4 - 8. It details through photography a pumpkin from the beginning to the final carved product.

It shows and tells how the farmer plants the seeds, what the new plants look like, how pumpkins form and what they look like and even the many colors, shapes and sizes they come in.

I was really impressed by this beautiful book. The only thing that really bothered me is that there were photography of trick-or-treaters dressed in some really scary costumes-considering the age it is geared to.

If you celebrate Halloween, then you will not want to miss Pumpkins. It will be a wonderful treat for your favorite child.

Armchair Interviews: Special look at a pumpkin as it becomes a jack-o-lantern.

Written by Ken Robbins, Pumpkins is a picturebook celebration of the edible plant that is cherished as a Halloween symbol. Full-color photography offers a tour of the life of a pumpkin plant, from seeding to flower to fruit and harvest, and finally being carved into a scary jack-o-lantern. The perfect seasonal read-aloud book for Halloween, Pumpkins is especially fun to page through for young pumpkin lovers eagerly looking forward to the holiday season.

This is a very readable children's book about bats. It helps to dispel some of those nasty myths about our only flying mammal that seem to persist. I use this book as part of my unit on bats that I teach in my second grade classroom. A twin text that I also use is Stellaluna. Pairing fiction and nonfiction works very well with young children. Zipping... is very informative and a very good resource for exposing children to needed symbiosis of man and nature. I will be building a bat house with ny students as a follow up. Think about this book the next time you find yourself swatting at a pesky mosquito.

Got it for my older brother (wont say how old):)000 We both enjoyed it, learned a lot. Got it to get free shipping well worth it. When ever my brother gets tried of the book he'll give it to someone who needs to learn just how important Bats are!!!

This book was about bats like the flying fox and vampire. It taught me all about different kinds of books. I recommend it.

I love this book and so do my 5 year old son and 7 year old daughter. It is filled with great pictures of bats and all kinds of bat facts. It lets you know that bats are nothing to fear and even shows you how to make a bat house in the back of the book. Did you know that bats are the only flying animals that nurse their young? Bat "pups" hang together in large groups called nurseries and each mother returns at least twice during the night to feed her little pup. Did you know that there is a bat in Australia that has a six foot wing span? I didn't until I read this book...don't worry they eat fruit! I liked bats before...now I like them even more.

Have you ever wanted to learn about bats? Well, I did. So after reading Anne Earle's fabulous book, Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats, I learned that bats are innocuous, useful and interesting mammals. Let me tell you what I have assimilated.
Bats are considered nefarious by many people but they are actually very timid and friendly. Bats are also considered good luck in China. Many emperors like to have illustrations of bats on their possessions in order to bring them serendipity. Some kids in Midfield, Alabama even formed a club called B.A.T. which is an acronym for Bats Are Terrific. The purpose of the club is to inform people how harmless and useful bats are to people.
Speaking of usefulness, let me illustrate how bats are helpful to humans. Since bats are insectivores (eat only insects), they prey on bugs that bother humans like the menacing mosquito. Bats at Bracken Cave, near San Antonio, Texas, eat approximately 500,000 lbs. of insects a night! That is equal to 250 tons!! That is useful because those insects could have obliterated farmers' crops and people's plants. Also, bats help humans by pollinating flowers and allowing the fruit to grow.
Bats are interesting too! Most bats use echolocation. This is when the bat finds the location of an object or prey by sending out sound waves and listening for the echo. There is at least one bat that does not use echolocation. It is the California Leaf-nosed bat. This bat listens for the insect's footsteps or wing beats to find its meal. Another interesting detail about bats is that they are expert fliers. These mammals also use their wings to catch a scrumptious refection. The prey gets caught in the bat's wing membrane and the bat flips it onto its stomach and then gobbles it up. Next, bats hang upside down in caves, under viaducts, and some attics. They use their talons to get a grip of the ceiling. While hanging upside down, they may choose to sleep or groom themselves. Bats keep themselves as clean as cats by using their tongues to keep themselves immaculate. The last interesting detail that you may want to know is that some spelunkers accidentally kill bats by waking them during their hibernation. When the cave explores wake up the bats, the bats have to use a copious amount of fat to find a new resting spot. Now they won't have enough stored up food (or fat) to make it until spring.
Now that you have read my report about Anne Earle's fabulous book, Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats, I hope you have learned that bats are innocuous, useful and interesting.

I expected a book that would move me emotionally as well as intellectually, like Abby's Desert Solitude. That's not what this book is all about. It is well written, yes, but it only shoots for the intellect, not the heart, or at least it did for me. It is still an important read.

A classic. As we rush into brave new environmental worlds where angels fear to tread, and as our kids grow up plugged in rather than playing in the dirt, this should be required reading in all schools (and required for the parents, too). Besides presenting a compelling and important argument, it's also a very good book.

The book was in great condition, at a great price! I got it within just a few days. I would def. buy from this person again.

The earlier reviewer is wrong.The Ballantine edition is not censored.I have a Ballantine edition and there are at least three uses of the word "evolution" and the name Darwin is used at least twice.So don't let the paranoid pronouncements of an evolution worshiper stop you from enjoying this great book.All who love the outdoors and the natural world should read this classic work.

I re-read Leopold's Sand County Almanac every couple of years or so. It's not just a beautifully poetic celebration of the land. Its defense of a new sense of moral responsibility to the environment, spelled out in the book's "The Land Ethic," is a bracing tonic against the modern temptation to take the biosphere for granted. In these days of global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and escalating degradation of the land, water, and atmosphere, Leopold's 60-year-old plea for a new environmental ethic is both prophetic and urgently immediate.

In "The Land Ethic," Leopold argues for a new understanding of the moral community. Earlier ethical models focused on interpersonal and social relationships between humans. But given the interconnectedness of all members of the biosphere, we need to extend the moral community to include earth, sky, water, and all species--the biota. At least since the dawn of the modern age, human have tended to prize the biota only in terms of what we could get out of it. It had a purely economic, utilitarian value. But this way of thinking has resulted in environmental (not to mention economic and political) crisis.

What we must do now, argues Leopold, is to recognize our "vital" relationship to the biota, acknowledging that the well-being of our species is intimately connected to the well-being of the whole. This calls for a new standard of valuation that runs counter to the older, economic model. "Quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem," writes Leopold. "Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient." And if we do that, he concludes, we'll adopt the following ethical principle: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise" (p. 262). And part of what this means is that humans should strive to leave relatively light footprints on the earth, because the lighter our impact, the more likely the biota can successfully readjust to maintain integrity, stability, and beauty.

Good, important advice.