Gr 2-4-By concentrating on the food chains, Nadeau provides a different focus than that of other titles that may already be on library shelves. Instead of cataloging various plants and animals around a pond or in a tidal pool, he organizes the information to demonstrate the relationships among producers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, and decomposers. Each page of text faces a full page of photographs that include some of the flora and fauna mentioned. Sometimes the arrangement is confusing because two or three pictures are set on a page without much regard to relative sizes of the animals or whether they might be in such close proximity in the actual habitat. A two-page diagram at the end attempts to chart the interrelationships among various creatures, but it, too, is confusing. Some of the suggested Web sites are also odd. For example, one of the two forest choices relates to tropical rain forests even though the book focuses on temperate forests. Two of the pond references concentrate on how to build one while the third contains less information than Nadeau offers. In short, these volumes can fill a niche for reports, but they have limitations.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
