LIFE ON EARTH

by Donald M. Silver

A basic explanation of how plants and animals function and relate to each other.

95 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 1983

Reviews

[JayD · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a little surprised that this book has only received no reviews, because it is one of the better and more complete biology books for elementary or middle school students. That makes it doubly unfortunate that I only dropped by to point out one minor deficiency that is almost certainly the result of its being published in 1983, before the whole eco-hysteria convinced most students (and their teachers and parents) that we are all about to die horrible deaths from an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The (very minor) concern is that the book concentrates very heavily on animal, rather than plant, life and for both emphasizes that they need oxygen to manufacture food by attaching oxygen atoms to carbon and hydrogen atoms. What any junior botanist could tell you is that during photosynthesis plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. In other words, plants and animals, left to Nature’s devices perfectly balance each other. No one is going to die horribly.

I found two brief references to this aspect of photosynthesis, but a child might easily miss both, especially when primed to do so:

p14. During photosynthesis, hydrogen atoms are taken away from water molecules. This breaks up the water molecules and frees the oxygen, which escapes into the air. . . . All over the world plants are producing food and giving off oxygen. As long as they continue to do this, the supply of oxygen and food will never give out.

P.24 Oxygen is constantly resupplied by photosynthesis.