Published by Holiday House

Summary:  Rats! A book about rodents? Yes, and there are rats…and lots of other rodents from the two-inch pygmy jerboa to the 150-pound capybary. Each animal is portrayed in actual size (or as much of it as can fit on a page) with a paragraph of text providing some interesting facts about it. An introductory page explains what makes an animal a rodent; two pages at the end provide researchers with the size, habitat, and scientific name of each creature. Includes a glossary, index, and additional resources. 40 pages; grades K-4.

Pros: Animal lovers as well as rodent-phobes (I just made up that word, but I kind of am one) will learn quite a bit and enjoy the large ink and acrylic illustrations.

Cons:  Is it accurate to have guinea pigs in this book? Back in the days when I was a guinea pig owner (technically, my children were the owners, but you know how that goes), I was told guinea pigs aren’t rodents.  There seems to be some controversy about this, and guinea pigs may be leaving the world of rodents for their own order, as rabbits did before them.

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Published by Millbrook Press

Summary:  The monarchs are missing?  Some of them are, anyway.  In the last two decades, the monarch butterfly population has steeply declined.  How can we even know how many monarchs there are?  The answer to that goes back to the 1960’s when scientists first discovered the areas in Mexico where monarchs spend the winter.  Since then, they’ve taken annual measurements of the area the butterflies inhabit to get a rough estimate of the population.  There’s no agreement in the scientific community about why there are so many fewer monarchs today, but some theories include climate change, new pesticides, and agricultural methods that have impacted milkweed, the butterflies’ main food source.  Kids can help by planting milkweed and other wildflowers that provide nectar for the monarchs during their migration south.  Includes an author’s note, glossary, 3 books for further reading, an index, instructions for planting a butterfly garden, and several websites to help kids become citizen scientists.  56 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  A fascinating look at science at work, with plenty of photos and kid-friendly ideas for making a difference.

Cons:  The introduction profiled two kids catching and tagging butterflies; it would have been interesting to read more about kids acting as citizen scientists.

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Published by DK Children

Summary:  What’s the buzz about bees?  This book seeks to answer this and quite a few more questions like “Where does honey come from?”, “What would we do without bees?”, and “What can you do to help?”.  Turns out the whole “busy as a bee” thing is real; you might appreciate that spoonful of honey more when you know it’s the lifetime’s work of 12 honeybees (a jar of honey represents 55,000 miles of flying).  Why should humans be concerned about the disappearance of bees?  One-third of our food comes from crops pollinated by animals.  Scientists are working to develop a robot bee, but it’s not quite the same, is it?  Activities at the end include making a bee hotel and planting a garden to help bees in their pollination efforts.  48 pages; grades K-5.

Pros:  Interesting information combined with lots of graphics make this an appealing choice to learn more about all kinds bees, with a focus on honeybees.

Cons:  The whole bee situation is a lot more serious than I realized.

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