Sun Up, Sun Down

August 1, 2004
Gr 2-4-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.-Dona Ratterree, New York City Public Schools

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