(4) K-3 Illustrated by Consie Powell. Comparing nature to a patchwork quilt with "many different habitats all pieced together to create our wonderful planet," this book features animals and plants from different ecosystems and introduces terms like interdependence, domestication, and camouflage. Detailed illustrations effectively use geometric shapes in a patchwork pattern; vignettes frame a central image in colorful if static compositions. Additional information is appended.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Consie Powell. "It's eight o'clock in the salt marsh; / the tide is really low." For each hour of the day, Kurtz provides a rhyme about salt marsh creatures. Powell's detailed paintings, three to a page, show overlapping wide-area, mid-range, and close-up views. The appended text about salt marsh plants and animals is more informative than the sometimes confusing poems.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo