The Berry Book
Grades 1-3--An overly busy picture-book introduction. Gibbons offers a history as well as a guide to which berries are poisonous and which are edible. The layout tends to be cluttered. Prose is divided on some pages, with text running across the top from page to page as well as a few short sentences along the bottom. The watercolor cartoon illustrations are large, entertaining, informative, and abundant. Appended pages include how to grow strawberries, plus a few recipes that are far too simplistic to be of any real use. For example, there is no list of ingredients for making a blueberry pie. Instructions for making raspberry ice cream (two steps) and strawberry jam (six steps) are equally sketchy. Diane L. Burns's Berries, Nuts and Seeds (NorthWord, 1996), for slightly older audiences, is more clearly formatted and easier to use.Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WICopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.