Discover National Monuments: National Parks (Discover Your World)
With an inviting, browsable design and a chatty style, this large volume in the Discover Your World series covers 15 national monuments and parks in the U.S. that celebrate and protect natural phenomena—from volcanoes and caves to glaciers, trees, and sand dunes—and discusses their geology, botany, chemistry, zoology, and much more. Every chapter includes color photos, screens with detailed time lines, “Words to Know,” and “Try This” suggestions for projects and experiments. The informal talk does away with intimidating jargon (“Slug slime is one of the best natural glues”), and the science will excite readers, with detailed explanations of tectonic plates, radiometric dating, and dendrochronology (the science of dating using tree rings). Equally amazing are the facts of how the Grand Canyon came to be; the incredible variety of wildlife at Denali in Alaska; and how the rocks in Dinosaur National Monument span more than 11 billion years. Always, the conservation message is rooted in the truth of what is being lost and what to do about it. Grades 5-8. --Hazel Rochman