The Basic Five Food Groups

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3Mediocre series entries. Basic, the least successful of the three, briefly describes each of the five food groups. The photos seem inappropriate for the topic: opposite a page about nutrients is a photo of a stack of loaves of white enriched bread, while another displays a boy eating something that looks like a hamburger. The dairy group section neglects to mention milk from goats and the food pyramid is not presented. Better titles include Rosmarie Hausherr's What Food Is This? (Scholastic, 1994) and Sara Lynn and Diane James's What We Eat (Thomson Learning, 1994). With clear, concise, and well-organized information, Digestion provides an adequate introduction to the subject. Unfortunately, the photos do little to enhance the text. A better choice is Paul Showers's What Happens to a Hamburger? (HarperCollins, 1985), which uses illustrations to depict the path of food through the human body. Nutrients provides broad definitions of six nutritional groups, briefly describing the roles they play in the body, as well as information about nutritionists and malnutrition. Once again, the photographs are inadequate: some are slightly appropriate while others do nothing to extend the text. Loreen Leedy's The Edible Pyramid (1994) and Dorothy Hinshaw Patent's Nutrition (1992, both Holiday) are far better titles.Mary M. Hopf, Los Angeles Public Library