The roseate spoonbill gets its name from its rosy pink feathers and spoon-shaped beak, which is one of the many facts kids will learn in this installment in the Swamp Things: Animal Life in a Wetland series. Appearing on the left-hand side of each spread are large-font sentences in a simple-enough structure to encourage beginning readers, with key vocabulary boldfaced. On the right, full-page color photographs depict spoonbills up-close in their natural habitat. Text boxes caption the eye-catching photographs, point out details, and pose questions that are answered on the following page. End materials include a science activity, glossary, and index. This bizarre-looking animal will surely catch the attention of young ornithologists, and this accessible volume will provide them with plenty of food for thought.

This series provides basic information about the wetland habitat and its creatures. Nine brief chapters discuss basic wetland geography along with facts about the title bird's appearance, food, home, and family. The many photos, background images, lily-pad-shaped sidebars, captions, and science questions are useful but crowd the pages. Photo glossary and "Science Lab" activity appended. Reading list. Ind.