What Is a Bird?

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

These six books are the latest offerings in the Science of Living Things
series, which now includes 15 volumes. Those volumes that cover a type
of animal generally include sections on physiology, reproduction,
feeding, environment, defence, and interesting facts. Each book in the
series is well illustrated with both photographs and drawings, and each
includes a glossary and index.

What Is a Bird? uses a generous selection of drawings and photographs
to illustrate the diversity of form and coloration; beaks, feet,
feathers, bird songs, flight, and flightless birds are each covered in a
separate section. What Is a Bat? provides information on bat wings,
echolocation, roosting, vampire bats, and bat varieties and includes a
fun “bat chat” section. What Is a Reptile? highlights the dangers
facing reptiles and contains sections on snakes, lizards, chelonians,
crocodilians, and tautaras. What Is a Fish? covers gills and
respiration, swimming, life in a reef, unusual fish, and water pollution
and includes a “fun fish facts” section.

What Is a Living Thing? and What Is a Biome? are broader in scope. What
Is a Living Thing? deals with both plants and animals and includes
sections on the living things’ need for air, water, and energy.
Growth, locomotion, senses, home/nest building, and reproduction are
covered as well. This is the only book in the series that has a combined
picture glossary and index. What Is a Biome? presents two-page
descriptions of various kinds of biomes, including temperate forests,
tropical forests, shrub and scrublands, deserts, grasslands, arctic
tundra, wetlands, freshwater environments, and oceans.

Each of these books could be used as a supplement to the elementary
science curriculum. Recommended for school and public libraries.