The True Book series is an older book series, from Children’s Press, giving basic information via simple text and pictures. Some of the titles have entered the public domain and Plumfield Press has started to reprint them in nice paperback editions using high-quality glossy paper and computer-graphic-refreshed color illustrations. This review covers three of the titles in the Plumfield Press effort. The scientific material in these books is not at all dated but is basic for a child’s understanding of the natural world.
The True Book of Honeybees by John Lewellen starts off with an informative chart of bee body parts, which the child reader can refer to as bee body parts are mentioned throughout the book. The book is split into eight chapters and seems to be at a higher reading level than previous Plumfield-produced True Books (Birds We Know, Plants We Know, and Animal Babies), so unlike those titles it is not designed for teaching reading but is an excellent book for independent science reading for the middle to late elementary school student.
The book gives fascinating information. For example, I didn’t know that honeybees are not native to North American but were imported from Europe. This book gives a comprehensive description of the life of the honeybee in its colony along with how the various kinds of honeybees, workers, drones, and queens differ from each other. I was especially struck by the very nice analogy of the bodies of worker bees to an automobile mechanic who has wrenches for hands and oil and grease-making organs and dispensers in his chest! God has certainly done a good job of designing this creature. In the section on how bees’ eyes use polarized light for direction-finding, the author gave the clearest non-technical explanation I have ever seen, and I am a physicist, of polarized light and its relation to bee eyes using a penny and penny bank analogy.
This True Book does not explicitly give any credit to the Creator but parents can easily direct the child’s attention this way. I note that the statement “Bees were on earth before man” could be interpreted in an evolutionary manner or this statement could be interpreted as bees were created before man, which is true according to Genesis Chapter 1. All in all, The True Book of Honeybees is a very nice science book for upper elementary students.
The two titles reviewed next, both by Illa Podendorf, are similar to her Animal Babies title in this series (see my review) in that they can be characterized as learn-to-read books but using non-fiction, not fiction. A child can learn to read while at the same time learning high-interest organized facts about the natural world that God has made for us.
The True Book of Insects by Illa Podendorf is a general description of fascinating facts about insects, with some basic ones at the beginning: insects are animals and all insects have six legs and three body parts. All the pictures and diagrams are quite informative, some are even beautiful, and are helpful for the child learning to read. In some ways this book reminds me of books such as Insects Do the Strangest Things, which is another good book, but at a bit higher reading level.
The True Book of Weeds and Wild Flowers, also by Podendorf, is a lovely book, similar in style and approach to her True Book of Insects. Chapter One gives a clear definition of what weeds are and are not, while a later chapter gives a clear definition of what a wild flower is. The book is worth reading for these two chapters alone. The pictures of various weeds and wildflowers, many in color, are realistic enough so that this book could be used as a simple field guide to identify many weeds and wildflowers while wandering about backyards, fields, and roadsides. I recognized many of the plants from our home school – and from mowing the yard!
I am glad that Plumfield Press has made these three True Books available again.