Milking Machines

November 1, 2011

K-Gr 1-Oversimplification, inaccuracies, and misleading statements doom this series. Much of the equipment and machinery is of foreign origin and not likely to be found in the U.S. The one or two sentences of text on each spread are of such controlled vocabulary that statements are often meaningless, or at best incomplete. Milking Machines excludes some major concepts when it takes the milk from the cooling tank to the table, completely skipping transport, pasteurization, and homogenization. The three- to four-word photo glossaries are worthless. The postage-stamp-size pictures are far too small to be of any value. Cultivators and Planters use the same photo to define different words. Major errors crop up in the photos. In Baler, the text describes the bale as being wrapped (it does not explain that the wrap is a plastic net), but the bale shown in another photo is obviously tied in twine. Concerning Cultivators, a cultivator, by definition, is an implement used to loosen the soil around growing plants. If one accepts that premise, seven of the eight pictures are not cultivators. Harvesters features a combine that is supposed to be harvesting a crop, but it is in a stubble field. Each title concludes with an index whose entries seem to be arbitrarily chosen-simple words such as "mud," "sizes," "farmer," "cow," etc. These books do not deserve even initial consideration.-Eldon Younce, Anthony Public Library, KS

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