Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Trees

The Crinkleroot series is a favorite at our house. We purchased the Guide to Walking in Wild Places a few years ago and still refer to it before taking family hikes with our young boys. We've enjoyed reading any Crinkleroot book we've ever gotten our hands on. I understand what an earlier reviewer says about the information being basic, but I disagree with the "being dumbed-down" description. I honestly feel that the goal of this series is to be a FIRST look into different nature arenas for kids... and for this, I find Crinkleroot books to be MORE thorough than many. These books are SOLID teasers to get kids started at looking at some details on nature-related topics... then we can expand on that information through leading questions with our kids, and they can turn to more detailed photo guides as longer term references later on, too. We just got this Guide to Knowing the Trees out of the library before beginning a leaf collection and identification project on our own. Upon first reading, it got my 5 1/2 year old self-described "science guy" very excited about trees... looking out his window and determining what were evergreens and broad leaf (even though the terms weren't even all that new to him), etc. Crinkleroot is always a fun character... especially when kids are able to identify him in more than one book. The character brings a story to the information, and we've found that to make chatter more immediate after reading. I found this book to be a VERY GOOD springboard for further tree discussion! I would recommend it as much as the other Crinkleroot books we've enjoyed!