Compost Critters

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-A look at the creepy crawlies that devour garbage and form the nutritious material on which plant life depends. Magnificent magnified photographs combine with a lucid text to amaze and inform. (July 1993)

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-- Lavies's extraordinary photography turns garbage and bugs into a thing of beauty--nutritious humus. The author begins by constructing her own compost pile and then observes it through the year as bacteria, worms, insects, and even crustaceans transform kitchen and garden scraps into fertile soil. The magnified photographs are rich in detail and color; the accompanying essay clarifies the pictures as it informs with both factual information and broadening concepts. By planting tomato vines around her compost, Lavies is able to show the result of all the activity--her tomatoes are huge. Her respect for these tiniest of creatures and her joy in the cycles of nature are apparent in both her words and her pictures. The ability of creatures to survive unchanged for billions of years; the similarity between what bacteria does in the compost and ``in your gut''; the life, courtship, birth, and death cycles that occur in this environment all add up to a positive, life-affirming story that will inspire young gardeners, ecologists, and scientists. --Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System