Tree

Review also includes:

Bird, ***, 978-1405313131

Plant, ***, 978-1405313110

Water, ***, 978-1405313124

These fact books celebrate the diversity of nature. Each book is organized in the same way using mostly double spreads, with a contents wheel at the beginning and an index at the end. Bright and appealing illustrations complement a clearly written text. A strong feature of the books is that, after an introduction to each sub-topic, detailed further information, both visual and verbal, is contained within the flaps and fold out pages. So in Bird, for example, we have a double spread headed ‘Feathered Friends’ with some basic facts about feathers and a carefully related fold-out page with a series of pictures showing how a bird uses its tail and wing feathers to fly. In Plant a fold-out page extends the double spread in ‘I know what a plant is!’ providing a clear cross section tracking how a plant grows from seed to flower. In the ‘Turn on the Tap’ pages in Water we open the flap to find an annotated picture list of the uses we make of water each day. The fold-outs in Tree work best of all: they help young readers explore inside a tree’s bark and root systems. I particularly like the fold-outs from ‘A Tree for all Seasons’ – so colourful and life enhancing as well as eloquent of the tree changing through the cycle of a year.

There are some tasks for children to try out. Perhaps that in Bird – trying to imitate bird sounds – is one of the less sensible, but Water includes a recipe for ice-pops and Tree advice about making bark rubbings so that comparisons can be made between the bark of different kinds of tree. These books, with their fresh approach to familiar topics, will help children think and learn.