Think About It: Our Disappearing World Forests

The opening volume in the Think About It series, Our Disappearing World Forests features a quartet of kids working on a school environmental project about the effects of tree-cutting on all of us. Aided by Howie, a sprung-to-autonomous-electronic-life computer, the kids learn about biomes, ecospheres, niches, and the differences between conifer and broadleaf trees, as well as the varieties of forests around the world (tropical rainforest, deciduous forest, temperate conifer forest, and others). Speaking with a number of experts from both the logging and conservationist camps, the kids turn to Howie for interpretation of all of the conflicting data. Howie tells them no dice: computers can retrieve information, but only humans can think. It's a wonderful lesson that caps a really fine program on researching and analyzing information about environmental issues regarding the world's forests. Although the price is a little high for smaller public libraries, this is recommended for larger libraries and junior high schools. Ages 8-12. (R. Pitman)