Jan Thornhill

The alphabet is nice enough. It is devoted to Canadian wildlife, which isn't mentioned much, making the animal choices perplexing. But the numbers! The numbers are gorgeous, with the animals hiding again in the border so you get count twice on each page. It counts up to 20 by ones and then does 50, 100, and 1000 (I have never tried to count all two thousand, though). I actually own 2 paperback copies of just the numbers, set aside so I can use them as decorations, because I think they're so show more beautiful. show less

I like Jan Thornhill though sometimes she drifts into preachy environmentalism.

This was an interesting book- I am Team No House Sparrows and I did have my view tempered somewhat.

As usual, Jan Thornhill tells it like it is, in this very honest and intelligent book about life and death. Life and life spans, how things die, what happens after death, and what happens when people die - it's all here, in a bold, visual format. Students will certainly appreciate the varied layouts, the expert photography, the big picture questions, the comparison charts, info boxes, and comprehensive index that are all tailor-made for middle years readers. The content doesn't shy away from show more tough subject matter such as human death, grieving, and funeral customs. Prepare for powreful questions and discussions as a result of reading this book with children. show less

Large format book, excellent illustrations. Interesting story of the house sparrows migrations with the Roman legions to Britain, and elsewhere. Importation of the house sparrow to the US. Decline in the population in the last century, in part because of the decline of horses. But I don't think the house sparrows "discovered" that incorporating cigarette butts into their nests reduced the number of pathogens that attacked their young, in any regularly understood meaning of the word "discovered".