Over and Under the Pond
Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal On a paddling journey, a young boy and his mother discover the plants and animals that call the pond their home. My family and I stumbled upon this story when a hike through a local wooded trail turned out to be a neighborhood story walk. This was not our first story walk and my children were excited to read the new (to us) book. My husband was surprised to learn that dragonfly larvae live underwater. My seven-year-old loved this book because "she learned what different animals ate". Overall, the book was a cute way to educate young readers on some of the plant and animal life found in a pond. Many of the organisms were those found near us, so we were familiar with them. However, although the facts were interesting, the pages didn't always feel like they flowed together to create a story. Even two facing pages sometimes felt disjointed. I would have liked to...