Farmers

Gr 2-3-Both of these books have 10 two-page chapters, the titles of which are questions. On each spread, a full-page, full-color photo faces five to seven sentences of text and a quarter-page photo on the right. Farmers suffers from trying to cover too broad a subject in too few pages. The overly simple vocabulary avoids calling types of machinery by their proper names, both in the text and in the captions. Simplistic sentences result in misconceptions and inaccuracies. Tractors do not break up the soil, plant seeds, or gather crops. The implements pulled by the tractors do these tasks. Farmers do not work in silos or store grain in them. Silos are for storing silage and ensilage. Veterinarians fares a little better, though it has some problems. There is no elaboration on the sentence, "Healthy animals help people keep healthy, too." Captions sometimes repeat the text. Both volumes conclude with a page that attempts to describe a typical day in the life of a farmer or a vet. Most professionals reading these descriptions of themselves would be offended. Stephanie Maze's "I Want to Be-" series (Harcourt) is a far better choice.-Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.