Nature Close-Up - Slime, Mold and Fungi [Board book]

Elaine Pascoe (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Series: Nature Close-Up

Photographs by Dwight Kuhn

Set off on a slime hunt; learn how to collect puffballs, lichens, and other fungi; grow your own molds and yeasts; observe and chart the growth of molds found everywhere in your home or school. (20030201)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-Two introductions distinguished by excellent, full-color photos and succinct texts. Both books briefly describe their respective topics and include a chapter on the ways people are affected by them. The bulk of the texts discusses how to collect and house the creatures and offers step-by-step instructions for conducting experiments and related activities. About a dozen species are depicted in each title. Appendixes offer the names and addresses of biological supply companies and short lists for further reading. The texts are clearly written and well organized, and the photographs are outstanding in their clarity and composition. One or two sharp images, many of which are close-ups, appear on almost every page. With its excellent visuals and simple experiments, Ants will be a useful supplement to other material about the topic. While the Silversteins' Fungi (21st Century, 1995) provides basic facts about fungi and their various methods of reproduction, it does not give as much detail on slime molds as Pascoe's book; also, it offers only a few close-up color photographs, and they are not of the same caliber as Kuhn's photos.
Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

It is hard to think of a more apt topic for a middle-grades book on nature seen close-up than this! The color photographs show a mold-stricken peach, fruiting bodies, spore prints of mushrooms, and lichens both dry and moist. This is a fair representation at modest magnification of a whole living kingdom to which too little attention is paid. Even yeasts are treated, more by their gas production from sugar water than by unfamiliar high-power microscopic images. A general chapter on the distinctions between these life-forms and either animals or plants opens the 48-page book. The approach is hands-on: you are shown how to grow a dark-gray mold on white bread and green-gray penicillium on a lemon section. Emphasis is on keeping the mold cultures sealed and safely destroyed. A few more difficult tasks are set: growing slime molds on bark from the woods and looking for and watching them grow out there, too. A list of sources for fungal supplies opens the purchase of kits for growing edible mushrooms and slime molds and also names some books at a higher level. This book is a cheerful, handsome beginning; some boys or girls who enjoy these early steps are at risk of becoming microbiologists or biotechnicians.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Board book: 48 pages
• Publisher: Blackbirch Press; 1 edition (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567111823
• ISBN-13: 978-1567111828
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #650,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome learning!!, February 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Nature Close-Up - Slime, Mold and Fungi (Board book)

After a thorough research at the library and on the Internet, this find was the jewel hiding in the sand!. This is
a topic not many authors approach, especially when it comes to
explaning to children, in clear language, what molds are. Not
only does it offer detailed definitions and explanations, it also gives the child many ways in which he can experiment with
molds. The pictures are very good, too! We used it for a Science Project that will be exhibited at a Science Fair. Not only did my children learn lots, I did too!!