Butternut Hollow Pond

Butternut Hollow Pond

From BooklistGr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. It's daybreak at Butternut Hollow Pond. It looks peaceful, but there is much going on. Bluegills dart out to feed on insects; a dragonfly snaps up mosquitoes, and then is snapped up himself by a tree swallow. At midmorning, five mallard ducklings narrowly escape the powerful jaws of a snapping turtle; a woodchuck also has luck on his side, when he scampers into his burrow just ahead of a marsh hawk. Sunset finds a largemouth bass on the end of a hook as a young boy reels him in from his canoe. Nighttime is the busiest of all; bats and nighthawks feast on bugs, crayfish search for night crawlers, and raccoons look for crayfish. Two concepts are beautifully demonstrated in this picture book for older readers: the hunter invariably becomes the hunted, and all living things are players in a complex cycle of interdependence that is much more than a simple food chain. Heinz fills this nature drama with action and sensory-loaded language that pulls children in as no science textbook can, and Marstall's realistic watercolor illustrations offer a lovely window to observe the diverse ecosystem. An excellent resource for the science curriculum. Lauren PetersonCopyright