Botany Books

The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow (Magic School Bus)

Joanna Cole

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The earlier books are much better 3 out of 5 stars.
16 of 17 people found this review helpful.

We were given a copy of "Magic Schoolbus and the Ocean Floor" as a gift. I then bought "Dinosaurs" and "Senses." There is a difference between the books written only by Joanna Cole and the later books that are basically a comic-book version of the TV show. It takes us a solid 45 minutes to read "Senses", and I even learned some facts. "Plants Seeds" is about a 15 minute read-aloud. I say stick with the earlier books.

Great fun! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I enjoyed this book very much because it is such a fun way to learn about science. This is the first of many Magic School Bus books I purchased, and I've been hooked ever since.

Excellent Read for Young Curious Minds... 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

As a 3rd Grade School Teacher, I found this book instrumental to my lessons on plant life. Ms. Drizzle and her class answer many of the questions my students come up with before we've read the book so I know that we're reading the right materials for our lessons. Great series for the imagination and for provoking interest in the sciences early in the child's development.

Editorial Review:

Ms. Frizzle's class is growing a beautiful garden. But, Phoebe's plot is empty. Her flowers are back at her old school! So, the class climbs aboard the Magic School Bus. And, of course, the kids don't only go back to Phoebe's school, but they go inside one of Phoebe's flowers! Follow the kids' adventure and learn how living things grow.

Why Do Leaves Change Color? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)

Betsy Maestro

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fairly detailed book for early elementary children. 4 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I have this book in my preschool classroom, but it is not one that I read at storytime. We use it as a resource when one child begins to question how or why the leaves change color. It is a helpful resource for me as an adult to understand the process, yet in simple language and with pictures to make it interesting for children.

Explaining fall 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I used this book this semester while student teaching with a Kinder class. The kids really loved the illustrations, and the explanation of why the leaves fall. They were fascinated with the explanation of the pigment for red, yellow, and orange already being there. I'd reccomend it with older children too, as they might enjoy the science behind it even more, and there's more opportunities to actually have them describe the leaves and observe leaves in a section the way the book shows us we can.

Why Do Leaves Change Color? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a question every elementary child asks their parent or teacher. Don't know the answer? Read this cute book and you will find out! A great book to teach one science concept of fall. Do leaf rubbings of leaves collected on a walk and you and your child will have a great afternoon of learning. Excellent text and pictures.

Editorial Review:

Explains how leaves change their colors in autumn and then separate from the tree as the tree prepares for winter.

The Tiny Seed (Aladdin Picture Books)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

not the best for intended age group 3 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I think this book is fine, but not for the preschool crowd. I would use it with older children -- elementary age -- to discuss the life cycle of an annual, the role of the seasons, and the challenges of reproduction which must be overcome by all plants. The Tiny Seed introduces us to many of the hazards faced by seeds and seedlings as they attempt to grow (from falling in water and drowning, being eaten by birds or mice, being overshadowed by large weeds, being stepped on by children, and more) and shows how the ideal environment is a necessity. It covers the role of sunshine and rain, how the seed swells and bursts open, how the plant develops as it grows, and how it produces and disperses its seeds to carry on the next generation. It's not a book for small children, though, since its mostly non-fiction tone is dry, the phrases are stilted, and it doesn't read aloud well. I find it difficult to "cheer on" the tiny seed; where others see him as a hero facing difficult odds, I think the book is too grimly determined to be educational and becomes boring for the youngest child. If you want a book to introduce a unit on seed dispersal, this is the one. If you want to talk with your three year old about the cycle of the seasons, you'd be better off with the Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter collection by Gerda Muller.

Editorial Review:

In autumn, a strong wind blows flower seeds high in the air and carries them far across the land. One by one, many of the seeds are lost -- burned by the sun, fallen into the ocean, eaten by a bird. But some survive the long winter and, come spring, sprout into plants, facing new dangers -- trampled by playing children, picked as a gift for a friend. Soon only the tiniest seed remains, growing into a giant flower and, when autumn returns, sending its own seeds into the wind to start the process over again.

Eric Carle's eloquent text and brilliant collages turn the simple life cycle of a plant into an exciting story, a nature lesson, and an inspiring message of the importance of perseverance.

How a Seed Grows (Spanish edition): Como crece una semilla (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)

Helene J. Jordan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

My five year old enjoyed this book 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

We enjoy the "Let's - Read - & - Find - Out" series of books. This one is a good addition, explaining seeds on my five year old son's level of understanding . Something that many adult writers of childrens' science books sometimes aren't very good at getting across. It is in my child's library at school.

The books in this series are informative and interesting for their target audiences. The illustrations are well done and add to understanding the process being described. They make it easier to follow for kids.

Great Science Project for Little Learners 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for a simple "experiment" for the budding scientist in your home, this is an excellent book. As you read this with your young child, he/ she will certainly be inspired to do what the kids in the book are doing; planting a bean seed and watching it grow.

As you read along with the story and follow-up with actually doing the experiment your child becomes part of the story, waiting and watching as his (or her) own seeds develop. Children learn the essential elements of growing seeds. Once you have successfully grown your first bean plants, there is a page at the rear of the book that guides you through additional "experiment" ideas to go even deeper.

This book, because it is on the Stage 1 level, is a bit less informative than the other Let's Read and Find Out Science books that we already have in our growing collection which are primarily Stage 2, but certainly worthwhile in that it guides parent and child through a very simple Science project.

Basic concepts covered in this book in addition to the seed growing are:

1. Counting (stage 1 is geered toward preschool to early kindergarten)
2. Patience (in that you must wait days to see things begin to happen)
3. The ability to follow instructions (the steps to perform the experiments)

Editorial Review:

Aprende y Descubre La Ciencia

Cómo crece una semilla

¿Cómo puede una pequeña bellota crecer hasta llegar a ser un gran roble? Este libro nos enseña los secretos de las semillas. Léelo y aprenderás a transformar un sobre de semillas en un precioso jardín.

A Seed Is Sleepy

Dianna Hutts Aston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Genius. 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Sometimes a book is so lovely, it is difficult to review. You just want to throw a bunch of words out, like, "stunning," "superb," "gorgeous," and "accomplished." There. I'm done. No? Okay, then, on with the review.

Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long team up again after their Cybils Non-Fiction Award-winning "An Egg is Quiet." Now I know what all the fuss is about. Aston takes a non-fiction topic and turns it into a lyrical work of genius. In "A Seed is Sleepy" the seed is the topic du jour. Now we've all read a non-fiction title or two about seeds. But Aston's genius is taking the mundane and making it beautiful. Take the opening page, for example:

A seed is sleepy.

It lies there, tucked inside its flower,
or its cone, or beneath the soil. Snug. Still.

Rendered in open, easy-to-read cursive, these lines are pure poetry and set the frame for the book. Each double-page spread begins with a similar seed statement and Dianna Hutts Aston's choices are always unexpected. My favorite is "A seed is inventive" and is followed by:

To find a spot to grow,
A seed might leap from its pod,
[violet]
or cling to a
child's shoestring,
[cocklebur]
or tumble through
a bear's belly.
[Red huckleberry]
A seed hopes to land where
there is plenty of
sunlight, soil, and water.



Sylvia Long's ink and watercolor illustrations are worthy of any nineteenth-century illustrated nature classic. Full color and lush, you want to snip each one out and make a gorgeous collage until you remember you'd destroy this amazing book.

"A Seed is Sleepy" will be enjoyed by children of all ages and all tastes. The story fan will appreciate Aston's way with words, while the non-fiction freak will relish the information presented. And the best news? Parents won't be bored reading this one aloud, either.

Editorial Review:

Award-winning artist Sylvia Long and author Dianna Hutts Aston have teamed up again to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to seeds. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, the book introduces children to a fascinating array of seed and plant facts, making it a guide that is equally at home being read on a parent's lap as in a classroom reading circle.

Sky Tree: Seeing Science Through Art

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Science Through Art 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Sky Tree shows how a tree growing on a hill by a river changes through all four seasons. Locker's oil paintings are beautiful and accurate. The text records the changes the tree experiences in simple language. There are questions at the bottom of each page where text appears that provoke discussion. At the end of the book, Locker gives a scientific explanation of each of the paintings: the summer tree, the change tree, the autumn tree, etc. This is a great book to use for teaching about the world of nature.

Editorial Review:

A tree stands on a hill by a river. As the sky changes, so does the tree, its branches filling with clouds, stars, snow, birds, mists, and the golden spring sun. One tree can mean many things.

Thomas Locker's lyrical text records the changes in the tree's world just as simply as a child might observe them, and his magnificent paintings crystallize the natural phenomena that embellish the tree on each page. Questions at the bottom of each page lead to a unique discussion in the back of the book, where art and science are intertwined, and further depth is added to the wonder of Sky Tree.

Jack's Garden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Light hearted educational picture book for kids of all ages 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Whoever coined the proverb, "a picture is worth a thousand words" could have been talking about Jack's Garden by Henry Cole.
This book is an excellent illustration of how, step by step, a garden is planted and what the seeds and living creatures do from that point on. We get to see above and below the soil as the garden progresses throughout the season. There are all the names of the plants and creatures labelled neatly next to each, on the main page and in the margins. Best of all, the classic children's poem about the house that Jack built is modified into a catchy text for each picture that makes understanding the magic of a little garden ecosystem effortless for kids as young as three years.

Top notch illustrations and a unique format set this picture book apart and earned it a permanent place in my collection. I only wish I had it in hardback!

Editorial Review:

"Building on a rhyme that will be familiar to many children, author-illustrator Cole creates an enticing guide to creating a garden. 'This is the garden that Jack planted...' The final illustration presents a satisfied-looking boy surrounded by a lush, bird-filled flower garden....A concluding page of gardening suggestions serves as a springboard to books with more specific guidelines."--Horn Book.

DK Readers: The Secret Life of Trees (Level 2: Beginning to Read Alone)

Chiara Chevalier

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This Level 2 book is perfect for children who are beginning to read alone.

Why do trees lose their leaves in winter? How do insects hide on bare branches? Let the trees themselves reveal their many secrets to you. Longer sentences and an expanded vocabulary make this series of 48-page books slightly more challenging: Level 2 is appropriate for children who have started to read but still need help. Information boxes full of background information will stimulate inquisitive minds. These books contain between 700 and 850 words, and they are approximately 70 percent pictures and 30 percent text. The Dorling Kindersley Readers combine an enticing visual layout with high-interest, easy-to-read stories to captivate and delight young bookworms who are just getting started. Written by leading children's authors and compiled in consultation with literacy experts, these engaging books build reader confidence along with a lifelong appreciation for nonfiction, classic stories, and biographies. There is a DK Reader to interest every child at every level, from preschool to grade 4.

How Do Apples Grow? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)

Betsy Maestro

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

How do Apples Grow? 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 27 people found this review helpful.

Betsy Maestro has done it again! Her book about how apples grow is both informative and fun to read. Students will be captivated by the story and the pictures. This book is a must have for all classrooms!

Good for someone, not for me. 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this with the hope that I would be able to use the pictures for discussion about apples with the preschoolers that I teach. The illustrations are wonderful but are truly geared toward an early elementary school level science curriculum. A better choice for my age level children was The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons in which a little boy interacts with a tree throughout the seasons of the year.

Editorial Review:

Bite into a juicy
apple -- yum!

You are eating part of a flower! Have you ever seen an apple tree in the spring? It is covered with pretty blossoms. Each blossom can become an apple. In this enlarged edition, Betsy and Giulio Maestro have created a charming introduction, with simple prose and colorful illustrations, to the life cycle of an apple as it grows from a bud to a flower and into a delicious apple.

Apples

Have you ever eaten a part of a flower? You have if you have eaten an apple! Find out how an apple grows from bud to flower to fruit--ready for you to pick!

Trees;: A guide to familiar American trees, (A Golden nature guide)

Herbert Spencer Zim

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The North Star for trees 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

When I was a kid, me and my grandfather (or Papaw as everybody calls him since we're from the South) loved to go walking in the woods. Unlike most people, we were more interested in checking out the trees than looking close for deer and rabbits. Being a curious little boy, I would ask him, "What kind of tree is this?" I don't know how he knew, but he was always right.

I got an earlier version of this book as a present and loved it! It was perfect with its easy reading and nice illustrations for anyone of any age. Most trees in the book are done like this: One page is devoted to them. Let's say you're looking at Mockernut Hickory. The top half of the page shows an illustration (there are no real photographs in the book) of the tree's leaves and fruits close up, along with a distant illustration of the tree in a scenic location. The bottom half of the page contains a paragraph that goes into more detail about the particular type of tree, such as describing its bark, where it grows, or maybe even a short history on the tree. Did you know that the pecan tree is a southern hickory that has transformed into a national symbol pretty much? It didn't even grow here in Alabama naturally, and now, due to widespread planting over the years, it's seen everywhere around here! Finally, at the bottom-right, we have a map of the United States. The parts that are shaded in are where the tree grows in its natural habitat. Oh, wait! It also tells how tall each tree gets and what family it's in (Beech family, Maple family, etc.)

That's a lot of detail for just one little page! But it never appears jumbled. There's a nice section at the beginning of the book that gives you an overview of trees in general, such as how wood forms, broadleaf trees and conifers, types of forests, and much more. Finally, it has a few pages where it groups major types of trees (Oaks, Maples, etc.) together and gives an overview of them, but it still has a page devoted to each separate kind (Water Oak, Southern Red Oak, Blackjack Oak, and so on). My only complaint whatsoever is that it doesn't show a close up of each tree's bark.

I used to look at this book and read it all the time out of pure interest, but there was an unexpected surprise as well. While my Papaw would simply say that one tree was "a hickory", I could outdo him and teach HIM that it was a SHAGBARK hickory. That is, until he got into this book as well. It really does have pretty much all the kinds of trees that you'll see in the United States, everything you know by heart like pines and oaks, to the more obscure, such as redbud, sycamore, honeylocust, and sassafras.

I lost that "earlier version" of this book years ago, but I recently purchased this revised copy as soon as I laid eyes on it and recognized it. Perhaps I lost it because I used to carry it with me nearly everywhere I went, and you probably will too. This book is about the size of a checkbook and it literally fits in your back pocket. Do you or someone you know enjoy walking in the woods or through trails checking out trees and identifying them? If so, this is the perfect beginning guide toward increasing your knowledge of these tall creatures in the world around you.

Editorial Review:

Pictures of 143 common trees, identifying their leaves, flowers, buds, shapes, and fruits.