A Sunflower’s Life Cycle

School Library Journal

Gr 1-2–This weak series pairs photos of average or below-average quality to short texts that are not always carefully written. Not only do lines such as “Why are webbed feet good for swimming?” or “The queen [bee] sits on her eggs to keep them warm” require answers or explication that they do not receive, but readers are asked to count a blurred jumble of hens in Chicken's Life Cycle, and in Frog's Life Cycle to predict what will happen to “frogspawn” that is missing from the accompanying picture. Each volume closes with a craft activity and a reading list but they don't compensate for the books' problems.