Our Earth

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to geography
Review: Rockwell follows her tried-and-true pattern of anchoring the subject by beginning and ending at the narrator's home, thereby leading the audience to relate themselves to the earth. She then briefly discusses various aspects of geography and geology, including the poles, dinosaurs, glaciers, islands, continents, volcanoes, water sources, forests, deserts, caves, mountains and canyons. The text is accompanied by colorful and detailed watercolor and gouache illustrations, including two maps. The subject of this book is much broader than those of other Rockwell books like Trains and On Our Vacation, and the text is suitable for an audience of older preschoolers and primary grade students. Given the number of concepts in the book, Rockwell can not go into much detail about any of them; fans of her one-concept books may be disappointed with the necessarily shallow coverage here. This book, however, provides a good overview of geographical and geological concepts, and exposes the reader to concepts with which they may not be familiar. It would be very useful to support a school unit on the earth, and would be enjoyed by the many children aged 4 to 8 who are interested in science and the earth.