Meadow

Look Closer

by Barbara Taylor

Examines some of the animals and plants found in meadows, including the crab spider, partridge chicks, and cocksfoot grass

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Science

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 1998

About the author

Barbara Taylor has written more than 120 children's books and encyclopedias. She was previously Science Editor at London's Natural History Museum. She has won the American Association of Physics Science Award and the National Literacy Association Wow Award.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the 1998 UK edition of a little book first published in America in 1992 as part of promotional material for Chick-fil-A's then new line of Kid's Meal Program, The Look Closer series. I'm not entirely sure why a UK book would feature prominent logos of a fast-food chain that had not one single restaurant in it, but there you go. I lived in England from 2000 -2005, and a lack of Chick-fil-A was one of the many perks.

I've got a feeling the story of how this series got picked up by DK and published in the UK would be more interesting in this book. Yes, I'm 40+ years older than the target market, but the book had problems.

Sometimes, it was difficult to see the critter being talked about. Granted, this might be to highlight that creature's powers of camouflage, but for a short book consisting mainly of photographs that kids are supposed to use to identify meadow life, it was annoying. The book sometimes only showed one phase of a creature's life. For example, we have red-legged partridge chicks, but not the parent birds.

I'm not an expert on all the plants and animals featured in this little book, but I know there is more than one species of bumblebee in the UK and North America. The book claimed there was just one species. Yikes.

The book is seriously out of date, published before the Internet became commonplace in the UK. Today, kids in the UK will not live withing walking distance of a wild meadow, since an estimated 90% of it has been destroyed in the last 95 years. There are also no safety warnings, such as not to handle wild animals.

Anyway, why did I bother with this? Because one of the two photographers was Jane Burton, who wrote and illustrated many good children's non-fiction books. I grew up with at least one, Horses (1978.) The other photographer was Kim Taylor, who I'm not familiar with. Supposedly Kim is related to author Barbara Taylor

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Test-riding various children's nonfiction series from the library

These might be a little involved for my 5 year old's attention, but when she's interested in studying pictures in detail, this seems like a great series.