What Do You Think: The Book of Problem Solving

School Library Journal

The first noticeable aspect of this series is the poor quality of the illustrations, which all have all the visual appeal of a low-budget tract. They are a major flaw in what is, at best, a mediocre series. All of the books present a number of situations in which young children might find themselves and then use the situations to discuss judgments, decision-making, or problem solving. The books succeed at defining the concepts involved; it's somewhat unlikely, however, that there's enough here to allow for effective generalization, particularly given the age of the intended audience. What Do You Think? has an added problem with one of the illustrative situations: an airplane landing on a building roof and how to get it down. The unrealistic nature of this example, in terms of a child's experiences, dilutes its value as an exercise in reasoning. However, this is the best of the three, giving openings for individual problem solving and with more interactive quality than the other two. What to Do? and What's Good? present the concepts but do little in the way of presenting information on effective decision making or judging, nor do they discuss relative values or consequences. A series with limited child appeal, but it may have some application as supplemental classroom material. ``The Value Of . . . '' series (Oak Tree) is a better general choice. --Trish Ebbatson, Delaware Co . Dist . Lib . , OH