Kids Can has released three new titles in the nature/science field, which seems to be one of the hot areas of children’s publishing. Even a quick glance at the library shelves reveals a large number of colourful titles about animals and science. To penetrate this market, a book needs to offer something special – outstanding illustrations, for example, or an exceptionally involving text. Of these three new books, only Living Things stands out enough from the competition to make it worth purchasing.

In Whales and Wild Dogs, the illustrations are adequate, but lack the immediacy and detail of colour photographs. In Wild Dogs, for example, the illustration of the coyote hunting a fish is particularly weak; the water looks quite unnatural. In Whales, an illustration shows tails from several different whales, and it is suggested that the reader use these as a key to identifying whale species, but the illustration may not be clear enough to help the reader do so.

Both books are well organized, with a glossary and an index, but the text is plodding and dull and does little to involve its young readers. For example, Wild Dogs notes that wolves eat “large hoofed animals such as moose, deer, elk and caribou.” In contrast, Judy Ross, in Wolves, a title in Grolier’s Nature’s Children Series, asks her
readers: “Can you imagine eating a big turkey all by yourself? A full-grown wolf can eat as much as nine kilograms…”. Those who survey the marketplace may find that other wildlife series, such as Grolier’s Nature’s Children or Key Porter’s Natural History Series provide as much or more information in a more entertaining and involving format.

Living Things is a collection of simple but enjoyable science experiments, all of which are loosely gathered together under the heading “living things.” This is a rather broad heading, and the experiments range from botany (experimenting with photosynthesis), physiology (discovering your lung capacity), life cycles (raising mealworms), and more. Although there are some suggestions for extending these experiments (for example, investigating the life cycle of a caterpillar rather than a mealworm), this book does not provide too much scientific theory. The experiments are best suited to a supporting role in a larger scientific unit or as a starting point for a science project. Especially appealing about
Living Things are the photographs that illustrate the experiments. The kids depicted seem to be having so much fun that readers will surely want to try these experiments themselves.