ALA Booklist (Wed May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

There's no substitute for hands-on experience when it comes to learning scientific principles. This picture-book series explains science through simple projects a child can easily do at home with just a little help from an adult. Dirt celebrates the many interesting qualities of soil, with experiments that help reveal what it's made of, how rocks become part it, decomposing plants, and the role worms play. These fun experiments are clearly illustrated with photos and computer figures inserted into the pictures to point things out. These ought to capture the imagination of budding second-grade scientists.

Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Each book contains seven question-based experiments that illustrate principles of various sciences, such as friction or soil composition; clear explanations of the results are appended. Unlike many science-experiment books, most of these simple experiments use easily obtained materials and can be performed by a child alone. Photos combine with a doughboy-like cartoon character to illustrate the material clearly. Reading list. Glos., ind.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-Sprightly illustrations featuring a mole sporting a cheerful wardrobe of play clothes brighten a straightforward text about the formation and importance of soil. Brief chapters explain what it's made of, what lives in it, and its layers and uses. The art is similar in style to that in Ellen J. Prager's Sand (National Geographic, 2000), also illustrated by Woodman. Each spread is surrounded by an earthy-brown border, and the watercolor pictures clarify the scientific concepts. Lighthearted touches such as a frog holding an umbrella and a mole joyfully tossing fall leaves appear throughout. Scientific accuracy and clarity of writing predominate, with one possible exception-soil layers are most frequently formed from the top down by water passing through rather than by layering from the bottom up, as indicated in the text. A quick, pleasant introduction to earth science.-Ellen Heath, Orchard School, Ridgewood, NJ Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.