Forest Food Webs

Children's Literature - Jamaica Johnson Conner

"Energy moves from one living thing to another. A food chain shows how the energy moves. The energy for life comes from the sun. Plants store the sun's energy in their leaves, stems, and roots. When an animal eats a plant, the animal gets some of the sun's energy from the plant. The energy moves farther along the food chain each time one living thing eats another." This excerpt from the book, which is a part of the "Early Bird Food Webs" series," reveals the simplistic, practical explanations about the food chain of forest creatures provided in this title. Well-organized with a table of contents, a list of resources for further reading, a glossary, and an index, this book also offers two unique features. One feature includes a challenge to be a "word detective"—readers are challenged to find words in the list provided at the beginning of the text, to guess the meanings based on context clues, and to check their hypotheses in the glossary. This is an excellent strategy for fostering good reading habits for readers at the fourth grade level. Another feature provides suggestions for adults when sharing this book with children. The colorful pictures, charts, and graphs complement the information about trees, plants, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores in the forest.