Plant Cells and Life Processes

by Barbara A. Somervill

This book explores the features of the plant cell and their life processes.

48 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Barbara Somervill is a professional writer who has been a magazine editor, journalist, and advertising copywriter for more than twenty years. Somervill is a member of the National Association of Female Executives, the Association of Women in Communications, and the International Documentary Association.

Reviews

[Mx. Krabappel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this with my 5th grade classes as part of Module 1 of Open Up Resources Bookworm's Curriculum. The text is dense, wordy, diluted in some places for the elementary set and unnecessarily technical in others. The sentence structure is clunky and often reads like it's had too many authors or editors spoiling the broth. And yet, despite its presumed too many cooks, it is rife with eye-popping factual errors. For example, the text posits that carnivorous plants like Venus fly traps and pitcher plants do not perform photosynthesis. More egregiously, its description of meiosis on page 28 is wholly inaccurate and conflated with fertilization. While the diagram on the page is correct, it is lacking description or words explaining the process taking place. Finally, on page 36 the text reads: "Diatoms produce more carbon than the world's rainforests," which is completely backwards. Diatoms and rainforests are carbon sinks. They absorb carbon, not produce it. I can't imagine how much wrong information is in this book that I'm missing because I'm not particularly hard science savvy. I am embarrassed to have this book in my classroom library and mortified to teach it. Not to mention, my students groan every time they have to take these books out to chorally read. I can forgive a text for being dull, but the factual errors are absolutely bananas. How has this book not been pulled from Bookworms? It's been 10 years!!

[Kloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative . Thanks

[Jayetta Carter-mcfarlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be used for grade 1 - 5. It teaches young learnera about cells and plants. Pictures are on every page in this 48 page book. It breaks scientific language down to a child's level of understanding. It helps children to make connections between this new information and what they see around them about plants in daily life. This book even explains how plants can get sick and shows photos of sick plants. I would use this book in the EXPLAIN part of a 5E science lesson plan. Parts of the book could also be used in the ENGAGE part of the lesson plan.

[Andrew Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be perfect for a lesson on plant cells or the life cycle.