Earth

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-This companion to Water (Holt, 1994) is similar in format but lacks the translucent jacket that lent a liquid air to that volume. Robbins presents his view on the many ways the solids of Earth affect us and are used for our benefit, from plate tectonics to the fertility of soil to the creation of coal under heat and pressure. His conversational tone is pleasingly affable as he discusses his personal thoughts in a voice both eloquent and clear. The text is accompanied by his trademark delicately hand-tinted photographs brushed with muted tones that enhance texture and seem to smooth away harshness. They include such disparate images as a potter at work; sea stacks along the Oregon coast; a huge, open-pit copper mine; and a Native American burial mound. We are mostly water, Robbins reminds us, but our solid residue is the stuff of the bones of the Earth. Report writers may be puzzled; whole-language enthusiasts delighted. Thought-provoking.-Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY

Mary Harris Veeder

Robbins' signature illustration technique--hand coloring his own 35-mm photographs--has a way of helping us revisualize the familiar. The coloring heightens the reality of the scenes, making each locale seem different and suffused with meaning. In this second of a four-book series on the elements, sedimentary rocks seem full of stories, and sand dunes seem mysterious. Robbins' text is fluid, not dry: he's not afraid to call magma "squooshy." This is truly science for poets, science that makes us feel more knowledgeable and more reverent at the same time.