Wildlife Gardening
Grade 3-6–This colorful guide is filled with information and activities. Cox defines the food web of a backyard and encourages attracting wild animals not only to help them survive, but also to enjoy observing them. The environmental activities are illustrated with full-color photographs of enthusiastic children accomplishing these projects mostly without adult help. But composting, making a bog garden, and creating a bee hotel could be difficult and frustrating for children (where do you get pieces of bamboo cane, and how do you cut them to the right size?). The photographs, drawings, and collages are bright and cheery, but sometimes cluttered and distracting, and the table of contents is not easy to follow. Although this book is jam-packed with ideas for projects, its flaws make it an additional purchase.–Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.