The coverage of the five senses and the inner senses (kinesthetic receptors) in muscles, tendons, and ligaments is at best adequate [in The Sense Organs: Our Link With the World]; and, occasionally, the information provided is too scanty: e.g., the names of the three bones in the middle ear are omitted; in the demonstration of "blind spots," the text does not specify that you must close your right eye in order for the dot to disappear, etc. A fuller presentation, including some of the same experiments, is [Herbert S.] Zim's Our Senses and How They Work …; however, the Silversteins also treat plant sensitivity and modern research to improve the senses, and, unlike Zim, include an index.

Before getting down to the subject of cancer [in Cancer] the Silversteins have introduced bacteria, malaria, nucleus, DNA, and a proliferation of other terms they list in an appended glossary. In their survey of cancer treatments and cancer research, which takes up most of their book, they incidentally cover X-rays, immunity, hormones, etc.—all of which raises the question of the suitability of the subject to treatment at this level. True, all concepts which are introduced are duly (and simply) explained, and the authors do furnish (for what it's worth) an informed and unsensational briefing on the status of the ongoing war on cancer. Your assessment of whether all this is needed by children for whom cell and gene and virus must be defined will determine your judgment of the book.

Readers who aren't put off by the attribution of "a strange restlessness" to the migrating turtles and "a feeling of fullness" in one six-foot-long mother-to-be will follow the pregnant wanderer from the shores of Brazil to her egg depository on Ascension Island, then switch to one of her offspring for the return trip [in The Long Voyage: The Life-Cycle of a Green Turtle]. As in the Silversteins' A Star in the Sea (1969), the inevitable sameness of the life cycle formula is relieved by the introduction of some human characters—here biologists from a floating laboratory who electronically tag the newly hatched turtles and track them for months across the sea. This device is carried a bit far with a boy from the ship who becomes personally attached to one of the turtles, rescuing her from various predators along the way and reencountering her on the same Ascension Island twelve years later when the boy is a marine biologist and the turtle is returning to lay her eggs. On the whole, however, mind-reading the turtles is kept to a minimum and the people do add variety and a bit of scientific information to the long voyage.

An attempt to present the facts of reproduction without placing any value judgements is difficult; however, the Silversteins have done a commendable job [with The Reproductive System: How Living Creatures Multiply]. New terms are introduced in italics, with phonetic pronounciation when necessary…. Reproduction in animals and plants, both sexual and asexual, is succintly presented, and there is a brief discussion of cloning. Minor flaws in the text detract from its quality. For some children, the assistance of an informed adult may be necessary for understanding some of the concepts. (pp. 47-8)

It is useful to have assembled in [The Magic Change: Metamorphosis] descriptions of the various types of metamorphosis; true, descriptions of bee and frog are plentiful enough in children's books but other subjects such as eels are harder to find. Yet it is a pity that the authors cannot decide for what age they are writing, for a child who needs to be asked "Have you ever noticed how quickly the little puddles … dry up when the sun comes out?" is hardly ready for the explanation of survival on page five nor interested in the addition of thyroxin to the water in which axolotls live…. Young children need to do a good deal of practical observation before wanting to read a book like this, and older children may be put off if they think they are at times being treated like six-year-olds. Nor does it help to have animals treated in anthropomorphic terms as "starfish are very greedy", nor to write about frogs without using the words frogspawn or amphibian. The adjective in the subtitle is inappropriate as is the description of the dragonfly emerging with "tissue paper wings". Children take things very literally and this book purports to deal with science, not fairy tales. (pp. 167-68)