Customer Reviews

Pond Life: Revised and Updated (Golden Guide)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pond Life is like a general biology introduction to life found in ponds. All types of life are covered, albeit in very brief introductions. Plants and animals (microscopic to mammals to birds) each receive tertiary coverage. The book does not get into specifics on how wetlands function relation to other ecosystems, and such coverage would have been useful, but the overall emphasis is still relevant.

The book is likely not intended to be read from cover to cover, as it is a field guide. Field guides are really meant to be brought along in a pocket for easy reference when making field identifications. In this respect, I am a big fan of other field guides in the series.

This volume and its companions should be readily available at nature centers, but the price is low enough for people to purchase it for their own libraries. What it lacks in detail it makes up for in compactness and readability.

Golden Guides are often described as books for children just discovering the natural world. While the series is eminently usable by young naturalists, Golden Guides are solid introductory field guides. One of the strengths of "Pond Life" is its comprehensive scope covering everything from protozoa to plants to mammals. Indeed, it provides more good basic information on identifying types of water plants than any other source I know complete with measurements and color illustrations. The same applies to its coverage of invertebrates as well, though the minor objection of the previous reviewer concerning its scanty treatment of protozoa is a valid one. I would add to the strength of "Pond Life" its portability, which packs a plethora of information into a small package. Another weakness (of the Golden Guides in general) is its datedness to the 1950's and 60's. This does not affect its basic science in most cases, though it is strange (albeit nostalgic for some) to see the equipment suggested for pond watching.

This little book is a bargain if you want to identify aquatic plants, animals, etc. commonly found in US lakes & ponds. All color plates and well put together.

I use this book to introduce scuba diving students to freshwater plants and invertebrates. Both the illustrations and the descriptions are good. I've been unable to find a better book for this purpose. On the other hand,the coverage of fish species is limited, (eg. Smallmouth bass are missing!), and the illustrations mix fish of greatly differing size on the same pages.

This is far different from other books in the same series that I have come across. While all of the Golden Guides contain some information beyond that needed for identification, this book has much more of an emphasis on broadly educating readers about the intricacies of pond life.

Taking on an entire ecosystem, Reid has given himself plenty of space to talk about the various types of pond habitats, the nature of water and how that fits into the picture, and the different seasons as they affect pond life. I found all of these sections to be highly informative, with the Golden Guide trademark of sophisticated knowledge being passed on in manageable chunks.

Reid doesn't talk down to the reader in the slightest; any young reader will sense that this guidebook is appropriate for amateur scientists of all ages.

Even the identification section is more word-laden than other Golden Guides, and much emphasis is put upon identifying different families and classes of organisms, rather than being limited to species identification alone.

No family that lives within striking distance of a pond should be without this handy little book. At the very least, it can provide a couple of magical afternoons exploring this amazing habitat together.

I'm very much a nature lover. When this book arrived, I saw the small size (about 6" x 4") I felt a little dissappointed. I thought at least it would be something 'cute' for my kids, but would be far too basic for me.

NOT AT ALL!

I'm learning things I had no idea about. Did you know there are FRESHWATER JELLYFISH! I didn't!

Do you get energized learning about things in the natural environment? If so, you might really want to give this book a try. The book does not go into tremendous detail about each critter or topic covered, but does so enough to grasp the subject matter, and further research if you're interested. As I did with freshwater jellyfish - for which I now have bookmarked videos of them.

Another thing I liked, my attention span is not all that good. In my day, you got a smack on the back of the head, now they call it adhd....I found the book easy to read and follow. It's not like the longwinded boring educational type of book. You can flip through, find pictures of stuff you want to learn about and read - you don't have to read in a cover to cover manner.

Very cool book, very nice suprises reading it!

Typical of the Golden Guides, this book is written for audiences of all age levels, from elementary school through college. The style and tone are appealing and allow the reader to seek any level of depth. The drawings and illustrations provide useful complementary information to the text. Somehow, the author has managed to make the phylogenetic and zoological information accessible to a general reader. This book would be equally at home on the shelf of a middle school student taking his first biological sciences class or a college student studying limnology or stream ecology. Information on identification of organisms is generally sufficient, but not overbearing. Some of the material is dated, such as the use of the phylum name Coelenterata rather than Cnidaria, but the nonexpert will be unaffected by this. As an added bonus, the Golden Guides are priced extremely attractively.

If your child loves science and has an interest with frogs, insects, and pond life, this little book is a wonderful colorfully illustrated book they would surely enjoy! Informative and detailed illustrations to go along with easy reading of plants, birds, fish, and microscopic life you can find in a pond. Small enough to place in their back pocket or book bag. I think Golden Guide books St. Martin present a very easy book to understand and explore all kinds of animal and plant life.

This is one of the best books in the entire series, and I have probably over 30 of them, including some that are out of print (such as the one on Non-Flowering plants).

I worked in the publishing industry as a writer and editor for eight years, and in my humble opinion the little Golden Guides are an almost unique set of books. They convey a tremendous amount of information in small compass (the guides are all 256 pages long, interestingly enough), and extremely well written and illustrated. They have been the primers for several generations of young people interested in natural history, and their influence has been substantial.

Originally starting out with titles such as Birds and Mammals, back in the 40s, by the 60s they had branched out into other areas with guides on other natural history areas such as Insects, Spiders, Rocks and Minerals, structural geology, The Stars, The Sky Obsevers Guide, Light and Color, which covered the science of Optics. In physiology there was the guide on The Heart, and even books on Guns and Fishing. The guides on Botany, Pond Life, and Non-Flowering plants were some of the highest level ones they did.

This guide covers everything from protozoa to macroscopic life forms that can be found in a pond. As a 9 year old boy with his first microscope, I used this guide to help identify the first green alga that I found, which was chlorella, which was quite common. I also found rotifers, paramecia, blue green algae, and a few euglena. But for a long time, this was my only guide. Eventually I acquired other more advanced books in junior high and high school, and went on to major in and study physiology and botany in college and grad school, but in many ways this wonderful little set of books was where my interest and education all started. Overall, this is another great book in the series, and as I said, possibly the greatest little series of its type ever written. Many other series have come out since, but none have accomplished as much in such small format as these terrific little books.

I used to rent this book so much from the parochial school library that the nuns used to scold me for not sharing it to others. It is a great book for the budding natualist or the field explorer. The insights into pond evoloutions are great in explainations. The pictures are very accurate for the plants and animals represented. The insect close ups are the best. This book helped me to build a lifelong fascination into pond ecology and invertebrates.