You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Bacteria! (You Wouldn't Want to Live Without…)

by Roger Canavan, Mark Bergin (Illustrations)

They are far too small to be seen with the naked eye, but bacteria are one of the most widespread forms of life-and one of the oldest. This series takes readers (Ages 8-12) on a historical journey, examining how people coped in the past and how they developed ingenious ways to make life safer and less unpleasant. Each book features full-color cartoon-style illustrations and hilarious speech bubbles to heighten interest, making the series attractive even to reluctant readers. They appeared on Earth more than 3 billion years before the first dinosaurs. Some bacteria cause deadly diseases, but many are harmless or even helpful to humans and other animals. They fertilize the soil by breaking down dead material into useful chemicals, and they are an essential ingredient in many foods. Bacteria in our own bodies are a vital part of the digestive process.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, History

32 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2015

Reviews

[Kelly Carey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads more like a science textbook than a book in the "You Wouldn't Want to Series." It could use a little more humor.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a TON of information in this book, but I felt like the busy layout was disorganized and a little overwhelming at times.

[Laci · Rating 5 out of 5]

You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Bacteria by Roger Canavan, a part of the “You Wouldn’t Want to…” series, is a fun but educational informational text about bacteria! One of my favorite parts about the book is the Bacteria Timeline that you can see when you turn to the first page, I definitely would love to tie this into a lesson within my future classroom! This book is really interesting in the fact that each two-page spread is a new topic about bacteria, which would allow teachers, students and readers, in general, to focus on a topic per day, as the content is simplified but I still think it could become a bit too confusing if you read the whole book in one day! This being said, I think I would use this in a late in the year four-grade class or a fifth-grade classroom because I think they would be able to get the most out of the text and I fear that third graders and early fourth graders would become overwhelmed by the amount of information on two pages.

The book starts off with a timeline to organize the events talked about within the book, however, I would like students to create their own timeline. We have talked about timelines a lot within our social studies methods class and the importance and value of them being used within the classroom! Each time we read a two-page spread, of a new topic, students will add any important events/people and dates to their timeline. I think this helps students condense the information from the books and allows them to this information organized. Students will be able to reference this timeline whenever they need it and at the end of the book I will hang all of them up in the classroom. This project will allow students to work on their writing skills as well as their comprehension of the text while referencing back to the book while creating their timeline.

Using their timeline, students will choose one event from the book and research it further. Students can refer back to the book for information but are required to use at least two other book sources for their information. Using this information, they will create a short presentation (PowerPoint, google slides, a poster, anything they want to use to display their ideas) to present to a group of their peers and later on to family members, guardians and parents during our “Bacteria: Good? Bad? Helpful?” showcase. This furthers students writing skills, comprehension skills of research and public speaking skills!

I chose this book as a WOW! book because I really enjoyed how they displayed the information in a fun and educational way. They have lots of pictures to help describe text that would be beneficial for students to figure out words or phrases they are unsure of. The pages are colorful and the text is mostly broken into smaller paragraphs which would be great for students! This book includes a glossary for accurate definitions that are written in kid-friendly language. The timeline at the beginning of the book was also a selling point for me as it allows students to visually see when the events took place, it's often hard to imagine when the 1800s took place! All in all, this book would be an amazing resource for a classroom as its chocked full of information and just plain fun!

[Meagan]

Books in this series tend to be interesting, with fun cartoons and information that is presented in brief, digestible paragraphs. However, the worldview is not Christian and ours is, so my kids and I tend to roll our eyes when prehistoric "facts" are mentioned.