Description
While the word “encyclopedia” in the title of this book might be slightly misleading, it certainly is an excellent introduction for youngsters to the wide subject of plants, fungi, and lichens. Each spread in this oversized book introduces a particular segment of plant life (there are twenty-two segments), such as Meadow Plants or Succulents & Cacti or Non-Flowering Plants or Poisonous Mushrooms.
Most of each spread is covered by a wonderful rendering of nine representative plants. They are not of photo quality, but they are quite realistic and detailed, giving readers a very good idea of what the subjects look like. For all of the nine plants shown, there are short paragraphs laid above and below the central art panel, in most cases, that give just a few sentences telling about the subject plant.
The writing is not formal, but actually quite friendly and welcoming to young readers, inviting them to get a taste of each segment before they go on to do more research on their own, which they are sure to want to do.
This is a book that will be read over and over as youngsters learn more and more. It’s a winner.
