Salamanders

September 15, 2012
Grades K-2 If your backyard is populated with as many creatures as there are volumes in the Backyard Wildlife series, it's time to put the house on the market. Taken in smaller doses, though, these brief, colorful volumes continue to be a solid first step to helping the youngest readers make connections between what they see and what they don't. A quibble: the chapter headings listed in the table of contents do not appear on later pages. That aside, the left-hand text (one or two short sentences) and right-hand photos make the books easy to navigate and understand. Salamanders is plastered with eye-catchers, including a salamander shedding its skin, snagging a faraway fly via tongue, and losing its tail: Bye tail! Start here, animal fans, and then let deeper series guide budding interests.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)