The Frozen Tundra: A Web of Life (World of Biomes)
Reviewed with Phillip Johansson'sThe Temperate Forest.Gr. 3-5. Two volumes from the World of Biomes series. Opening with scientists observing polar bears in Manitoba,Tundradescribes the climate, seasons, plants, and animals of the "frozen desert." Similarly,Temperate Forestbegins with a biologist trapping, studying, and releasing a black bear in North Carolina and then looking at the defining features of the biome. Each book includes a good map and many excellent color photos, though the use of patterned backgrounds and borders gives the pages a rather busy look and occasionally makes the print more difficult to read. Though there are no easy-to-copy, specific "food webs" here, each book includes a more general illustrated chart for its biome. "Some Plants and Animals in the Tundra Food Web," for example, lists five plants, eight herbivores, and five carnivores but does not specify whether snowy owls feed on musk oxen, lemmings, or insects. Both books provide good, simple discussions of the flow of energy from the sun and soil to plants, then on to herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, decomposers, and back into the soil. A glossary and brief lists of recommended books and Web sites are appended to each book.Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved