by Cathryn Sills & John Sills
Peachtree Publishers 3/01/2-14
978-1-56145-734-2
Age 3 to 7 50 pages
.
“With the help of beautifully detailed paintings by noted wildlife illustrator John Sill, the author describes the characteristics of different types of forests—from the cold boreal forests of the northern hemisphere to the warm tropical forests near the equator—and shows how various species of animals and plants have adapted to life in these habitats.”
Opening
“Forests are large areas of land covered with many trees.”
Review
Forests, filled with trees and animals, are the life force of our world. Trees protect fresh water, keeping it clean, pure, and drinkable. Trees also give us oxygen. A map shown just before the text and illustrations shows the type of forests and the area where each forest can be found. A forest has many large areas of trees, some tall and some small, but all are important.
The beautifully detailed illustrations show children what those trees look like. Included are the animals that live in the trees and the forest floors, all so children who may never see a tropical forest, or a boreal forest, can envision one with the help of About Habitats: Forests. Colorful birds and flowers accent the many different trees in the 17 full-pages of paintings. Simple sentences with simplified information bring the subject of forests to the understanding of young children.
Older children need more complex sentences and detailed information. Turning to the back, these children, and teachers, will find information younger children may not yet be able to comprehend. Each numbered plate, accompanied by a smaller print of the illustrations, includes additional information. For example, here is the second spread followed by the back information for this plate (#2).
“Tall trees make up the top layer, which is called the canopy.” [spread]
“Different kinds of plants grow in each layer. The three main layers are the forest floor, the understory, and the canopy. Tropical forests often have a fourth one called the emergent layer. It is made up of the tallest trees that grow above the canopy.” [back information]
The Sills have produced another winner in their wildlife series for children of all ages. Six books currently make up the About Habitats series. In addition to Forests are the following five subjects: Deserts, Grasslands, Mountains, Wetlands, and Oceans. About Habitats should be sitting on the shelf of every elementary school library as reference materials for both students and teachers. Esthetically, About Habitats are beautiful illustrations with bright detailed birds and flowers in some, and exact details in all.
Information on the About Habitats series books HERE.
Buy About Habitats: Forests or any of the series at Amazon
.
Meet author Cathryn Sills at Jacketflap: http://www.jacketflap.com/cathryn-sill/24246
Meet illustrator John Sills at his website: http://www.johnsill.com/
Check out more great books at Peachtree Publishers website: http://peachtree-online.com/index.php/about.html
.
ABOUT HABITATS: FORESTS. Text copyright © 2014 by Cathryn Sills. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by John Sills. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA.
ABOUT HABITATS series
Mountains
Deserts
Grasslands
.
Wetlands
Oceans
.
Peachtree Book Blog Tour
About Habitats: Forests
Monday, 3/17/14
Jean Little Library
Tuesday, 3/18/14
Tolivers to Texas
Wednesday, 3/19/14
Chat with Vera
Thursday, 3/20/14
Kid Lit Reviews ME, ME, ME!
Friday, 3/21/14
Archimedes Notebook
Kids Lit Review 
Lovely..inspired to do some for my country!
LikeLike
This is a gorgeous looking book, and we’re studying animals and their habitats next semester in our homeschool! Perfect timing! Thanks so much for sharing it at Booknificent Thursday! Looking forward to seeing you again this week!
Tina
LikeLike
Anything nature related is probably available at Peachtree by John Sills. All he does is nature books. A while back, I won every book in this series and each book is fantastic. What in nature studies are you planning for this year?
LikeLike
These illustrations really do look beautiful, and the earlier we can get kids to appreciate the planet, the likelier they’ll become impressed more along the way as to how NOT to continue hurting it, right? 😀
LikeLike
I agree. Seems the last generation and my generation don’t really care–at least at the legislative level of the government. Why do you look orange? Your smilie looks like a pumpkin with a huge toothless grin. I like it, just used to seeing yellow. Might be my eyes. 😀
LikeLike
I am DEfinitely even more spacier than my norm ’cause, at first, I thought you said it was ME who looked orange! lol I was thinking if you think my avatar is a pic of ME, you have bigger problems to deal with than your eyes 😉 But I don’t know, my dear…you’re in control of the smileys here 😀
LikeLike
I meant your emoticon. I was the one not with it this day. WordPress changed the emoticons and I did not know this. Why? Have you been orange? I didn’t know what your avatar was. It’s you? My you are orange. I see your confusion. You are not sunny, or half sunny? What is the black thing under the sun? It looks like part of a bowling ball, and I have bowled enough to know what that is. So, you are sunny when you get to bowl. Interesting. 😀 -big grin-
LikeLike
Yep, the smiley emoticons 🙂 I don’t think the commenters have any control over stuff like that, right? Or am I that clueless? lol
Anyway, my avatar is a small section of the artwork I did for the header on my blog (which you’ve seen 😉 ) but may not be remembering 😉 That’s a paper scroll, btw 😀
LikeLike
I’m a big fan of books that teach our young about nature. Wonderful illustrations!
LikeLike
They are gorgeous. John Sills paints wildlife better than anyone . . . anyone. It is a great series. I won the entire set at the end of last year. They are really nice. I am hoping the school that gets the set finds a way to use them a lot.
LikeLike
These look like some very lovely books!
LikeLike
Anything that John Sills illustrates will be gorgeous books with exacting details. They have several wildlife series with Peachtree Publishers. The Sills also wrote the pseudo wild bird guide A Field Guide to Little Known & Seldom-Seen Birds of North America
LikeLike