How do birds fly?

Gr 3-5-These books attempt to answer some basic questions about complex topics, but they have superfluous information and oversimplify some key concepts. Each title has five chapters of short sentences with easy vocabulary and a review question with a one-word answer. Interesting color photos and an activity are included. Sky discusses the wave nature of light energy and gives a confusing explanation of photons. Mara describes the visible spectrum, the atmosphere's various layers, and the greenhouse effect. The title question is answered by explaining light "scattering" and the dominant detection of blue via the cones in our eyes. Fly mentions avian evolution from dinosaurs and the function of flying, types of feathers, structural adaptations, and bird metabolism. The last section describes taking off, but the most technical explanation of flight is the sentence, "The force of the wing pressing against the air around it is what moves the bird forward." Children are unlikely to find it either clear or satisfying. Fish begins with the role of oxygen in metabolic processes and then says, "It helps your body get energy from the foods you eat," without explaining how. The last section deals with gills and some of the mechanisms involved in using oxygen in three short paragraphs. There are no diagrams of gills, and the discussion would lead readers to think that oxygen from the water enters the bloodstream directly. Sky is the best of the three titles.-Lynda Ritterman, Atco Elementary School, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.