Under Your Feet... Soil, Sand and Everything Underground (Underground and All Around)

K-Gr 3--Reminiscent of The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain and Yuval Zommer, Stroud's book explores soil, burrowing creatures, climate change, and other topics related to the natural world. The text details the many ways soil impacts plant and animal life, the food humans eat, global warming, and more. Stroud and Royal Horticultural Society author and consultant Redmile-Gordon provide several ideas for hands-on activities. Though the book is certainly eye-catching, with a beautiful blend of illustration and photography as well as an engaging design, the pages are quite busy. The numerous spot illustrations and blurbs of text on every spread compete for readers' attention and contribute to a somewhat chaotic reading experience. The authors favor quantity over depth of information, often rushing from one topic to the next. While a brief foray into moon dust and Martian soil allows for an interesting point of comparison, segments like this feel a bit out of focus. Still, readers who spend time with this book will extract a wealth of well-researched knowledge and could be encouraged to explore other comprehensive books on geology. A glossary and an index are included in the back matter. VERDICT Though it is perhaps overly ambitious in the amount of information it attempts to offer, this book can be a starting point for readers to explore the world beneath the Earth's surface. A good choice for general purchase.--Lauren Hathaway, Univ. of British Columbia