Starred Review 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.

Heinz describes the course of the day from dawn to night in a pond. The food chain, and the many close escapes involved in animals' attempts to eat one another, provide narrative momentum and some suspense. The warm, detailed illustrations encourage the reader to sympathize with the animals and their quest for survival, while the matter-of-fact tone of the text eschews sentimentality.

Gr 1-3-Heinz explores the life in a pond from dawn to dusk. Turtles nip at mallard ducklings, hawks hunt woodchucks, and herons eat pumpkinseed fish. The cycle of life is evident. The informative, matter-of-fact narrative descriptions are almost scientific, as are the pictures, done in watercolor. The individual animals are illustrated with great attention to detail, and the close-ups of many of them are excellent. The pastel landscapes help soften the book, and are more impressionistic. The quiet text and appropriately serene or active artwork pair up to present a realistic look at this habitat.-JoAnn Jonas, Carlsbad City Library, San Diego, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.