April 1, 2011
Gr 2-4-Expanding on a topic introduced in her Where Do Animals Live? (Crabtree, 2010), Kalman examines various habitats while upping the appeal with frequent references-heavily reflected in the accompanying photos-to the young of resident mammals or, on occasion, birds. Even in Ocean, fish put in but occasional appearances among the sea mammals, penguins, and polar bears. Each volume points out the difference between living and nonliving parts of the habitat (an important distinction for readers who are still hazy on the concept), discusses food chains and reproductive cycles, and closes with a particularly useful combined glossary/index that includes small photos. Aside from the narrowness of the overall topic, plus a confusing tendency in Desert to use "meerkat" and the equivalent, but less common, "suricate" interchangeably, all of these titles will enhance natural science collections.
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