Practical Plants

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-- Bright, colorful, accurate, appealing--this series gives thorough yet understandable coverage of a varied world. Each volume is topical in focus and provides scientific terminology with clear explanations and full-color photographs and illustrations. The books stress the correlation between climate and geography and the green world, while plant interaction with animals and other plants are often cited. In Plant Partnerships , these relationships take center stage. Readers explore epiphytes (plants that use others for support), as well as parasitic or symbiotic relationships. Practical Plants introduces the great variety of ways in which plants serve people. Fruits, grains, nuts, building materials, coloring agents, etc. are all presented. Desert Plants outlines the many extreme adaptations that vegetation makes to survive the heat, cold, wind, and drought. The contribution of humanity to the expanding amount of desert in the world is highlighted. In Plants of the Tropics , readers see the varied changes plants make to grow in the humidity of the rain forest. The effects, mostly negative, that people have had on these regions end the book. These thoughtful volumes compare favorably to the ``Eyewitness'' series (Knopf). Their well-defined focus and easily digested format make them suitable for cover-to-cover reading as well as browsing and ready reference. In these books, the plant world hums with vitality as its importance to the existence of all life on Earth is explained. --Steve Matthews, Foxcroft School, Middleburg, VA