7. Junior Science Book of Pond Life by Alexander L. Crosby
Junior Science Books
Rating: (4/5)
1964, Garrard Publishing Company, 62 pgs +index
Ages: (7+)
"The author describes the construction of his own pond and discusses photosynthesis as the basis of the food cycle involving various forms of aquatic vegetation, insects, amphibians, and higher forms of life."
Purchased from a thrift store.
I love the books by Garrard Publishing and the Junior Science Books. We used these in my homeschool frequently. Crosby wrote several books for Garrard and Jean Zallinger was a prolific children's nature & science illustrator. Many books have an appeal to collectors simply because of her artwork, of which I also am a fan. Pond Life ended up being a surprise for me as it really is a little memoir of the author's as he describes how they had a pond built on his large property in the woods of Pennsylvania and then goes on to describe the habitat and the wildlife he encounters there. Like all old children's science books, this is written in a storytelling narrative and is interesting to read. This is what we would call an "easy chapter book" today, so the sentence structure is simple but content does not talk down to its reader. A lovely little book about insects, frogs, herons, fish, muskrats, turtles and more. Zallinger's illustrations are detailed and typical of the time, printed in a monochrome, here the colour being a turquoise-blue. There are also a few actual b/w photographs included. I'm keeping this book for my library as an example of the series, especially because of its unique memoir format which is different from other Junior Science books.
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