Tadpole Rex, by Kurt Cyrus

When a dinosaur's foot makes a puddle in prehistoric earth, a tadpole hatches and survives in that footprint puddle. Pictures show the dangers he faces, from carnivorous insects to larger hunters. As this tiny tadpole grows into a frog, he thinks of himself as a fierce creature, meeting triceratops, alamosauruses, and duckbills. The author's note tells that frogs lived 100 million years before these dinosaurs lived. He also warns that pollution and disappearing habitat may cause amphibians to follow the dinosaurs into extinction. This is for the dinosaur lover, the frog lover, and the child who wishes to be stronger than he is. The rhymes, the vivid language, and the sound effects make this book fun. The illustrations complement the text perfectly.

Trout Are Made of Trees April Pulley Sayre

A very child-centered and eco-friendly way to explore the concept of a food web. In this case some campers set up camp by the edge of a stream and watch as leaves fall in the water and decompose and become food for other creatures. Of course those are eaten by bigger creatures. The book follows the life cycle of trout and points out that the trout eat the creatures that ate the creatures that ate the leaves. Therefore the trout are made of trees as are the people who eat the trout and the bears that also eat trout. Bears are not explained--but clearly bears eat fish. This really makes the concept easy to understand and accessible for kids. The title will encourage them to pick it up--just to see what it is about!

The collage illustrations really show what is happening and the joy experienced by the campers as they witness each stage of the events unfolding in the stream.

The acknowledgements make it clear that there were some experts involved in the making of this book. The back of the book contains a more detailed explanation of the trout life cycle. There is also a bibliography of print and electronic resources and a "Be a Stream Hero" section encouraging conservation and protection of our waterways. Recommended for K-3.