Children's books that explain, in proper fashion, the details of various aspects of nature and its cycles are abundant. Books that do this well and accurately are scarce. Sun Up, Sun Down is an example of how to address one fundamental part of nature in a way that will be appealing and instructive to young readers. The cute, simple, and short presentation describes night and day on the Earth, the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and how the two phenomena relate to each other. I recommend the book to young readers of grades 1-3. It is packed with great illustrations and accurate descriptions to help children grasp the concepts presented. Parents of all kids interested in learning about this topic, along with school libraries wishing to support science education in their schools, would be well advised to have this book on hand.-- "Science Books & Films"

These excellent science books explain their subjects lucidly and sometimes amusingly. In Bones, a Coelophysis misses its prey, crashes into a river, breaks its back, and drowns, although the skeleton keeps up a running commentary throughout the rest of the book, even when it is in pieces and stored on the shelf in a museum. From there, the author takes readers and the dinosaur step-by-step through fossilization, rock layering and upheaval, discovery by hikers of a fossil, the unearthing of other fossil bones by paleontologists, and ultimate classification, reconstruction, and exhibition in a museum. The second title guides readers through a day on Earth, clearly explaining the effect of Earth's rotation and orbit. Color cartoons, while less inspired than those in Joanna Cole's "Magic School Bus" series (Scholastic), keep the books lively and enticing, and children will be illuminated and engaged. End matter includes "More Great Stuff to Know," "Try It and See," and a small trivia section. A meta-Web site, FactHound.com, crawls the Web for sites related to the topics and vets them and makes sure the links work. First choices for any collection.-- "School Library Journal"

Publisher: Picture Window Books

Pub date: 2004-01-01

Length: 32 pages