New Biology Book

I pulled out a college biology text yesterday thinking I might add it to our reading line up. Catherine loved the pictures and illustrations but I sort of balked at reading it because it was published in 1985 (another thrift store find). Granted, the basics of biology probably haven't changed a whole lot in just twenty years and we will be looking at it but that small fault had me digging around for what else was availible and as a result I found Chemistry Demystified by Dale Layman.



It seems to be sort of a biology-for-dummies kind of thing. A general overview with language that's not as dense as a college textbook. It doesn't have any of the amazing photographs of the text I have (nor of the one I crave, Biology by Campbell and Reece) but it's black and white line drawings do have their own advantage:



Lots of giggles.

Catherine loves that picture.

So, general overview, clear language, funny illustrations and...End-of-chapter quizes! If there's one thing Catherine loves, it's quizes and since this isn't a textbook all the answers are in the back of the book.

We'll certainly be going back to biology again when Catherine's older but this book will give her a nice introduction and a sense of familiarity with the subject. We'll just juggle this with The Story of Science and we'll be set in the science department for a few weeks.

NOTE: Apparently we're going to be juggling the elements book I was talking about a few weeks back as well. We put it aside when it started getting dense with talk of beta decay and such but Catherine wants it back in the mix as of tonight. And I just had a conversation with a teary-eyed Harry who's feeling left out in the reading department lately. And he's right. Lots of Thomas books tommorrow.