Assisted by terrific photos, these books do an excellent job describing the interrelatedness of the inhabitants of mountain, Arctic, and marine ecosystems. The design is only flawed by small, somewhat hard-to-read font and occasional double-page photographic spreads that interrupt the flow of text, but sophisticated readers should be able to overcome these hurdles to get at the content. Bib., glos., ind.

TARBOX, A.D. A Desert Food Chain . ISBN 9781608185399 . TARBOX, A.D. A Mountain Food Chain . ISBN 9781608185405 . TARBOX, A.D. An Ocean Food Chain . ISBN 9781608185412 . TARBOX, A.D. A Prairie Food Chain . ISBN 9781608185429 . TARBOX, A.D. A Rainforest Food Chain . ISBN 9781608185436 . ea vol: 80p. (Odysseys in Nature). bibliog. glossary. index. photos. Creative Education . 2015. lib. ed. $42.80. Gr 5-8 These reissues of "Nature's Bounty" (Creative Education, 2009) have been repackaged. These offerings are smaller in size and feature new covers and titles and a rearrangement of photos; otherwise, they're the same, including the selected bibliographies. Each volume examines a different food chain from a North American biome: for instance, Rainforest begins with the cacao tree, then discusses the leafcutter ant (which collects the cacao's leaves), moves on to the anteater, and finishes with the boa constrictor (which preys upon the anteater). Full pages devoted to different animals are inserted throughout. While informative, these inclusions interrupt the flow of the main text. The well-written prose uses analogies such as "about the size of a sixth-grader's thumb" to describe the size of a queen leafcutter ant and wonderfully descriptive phrases, including "salmonpluck the sardines off like grapes" that will draw readers in. The captioned photos, while dramatic, play a minor supporting role. They often don't provide wide full-body views of the subjects or labels. VERDICT Purchase these for the wealth of information in the writing.