EcoMazes: 12 Earth Adventures
Starred Review. Grade 2–4—These simple, themed mazes are set in full-spread renditions of biomes ranging from a tropical rain forest to a rocky, penguin-packed Antarctic beach. Munro invites viewers to trace each wandering, easy-to-follow pathway with a finger, noting distinctive landforms and keeping their eyes peeled for the tiny but precisely rendered wildlife visible on either side of the path. A list of wildlife on the page plus visual keys at the back of the book will prevent younger or less-attentive children from becoming frustrated. The author adds to those keys a brief description of each biome's characteristics, identifies the locations on which each landscape is modeled, and closes with a carefully selected list of Web and print resources. This is truly a complete package: it's engrossing and interactive, featuring finely and accurately detailed art and covering the basics of an organizational concept that is central to our understanding of the natural world.—John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.