RAIN FORESTS
"Tropical rain forests are very special places. They cover only about 7 percent of the earth's land, but they are home to half of the earth's animal and plant species. These hot and humid regions have yearly rainfalls of at least 75 inches. In some places 325 inches of rain may fall in a year! (The average annual rainfall in Spokane, Washington, by comparison, is around 16 inches.) Temperatures in . . . "

BEES
"On a hot day in the middle of the summer, bees are buzzing, mosquitoes whining, butterflies flitting, and houseflies and dragonflies darting here and there. It’s easy to believe that insects are taking over the world. And indeed, of all the animal species on Earth, more than eight out of every ten are insects. Insects are divided into 31 orders, or categories. Bees (and wasps) belong to the..."

ECOLOGY
"That's the first step in ecology-- looking around. Your house, for instance, is an ideal place to start. It's perfect for a big mammal like you. Yet, it's also home to spiders, insects, and maybe the occasional mouse. Just outside are birds, squirrels, frogs, grasses, trees, flowering plants, rocks, dirt, and even more insects. When you look around at living things and their environment, you are. . . "

SUN
"In the grand scheme of things, the Sun is no big deal. It's just another medium-size star in a remote corner of the Milky Way galaxy. There are billions of others in the universe just like it. But to us here on Earth, the Sun is hugely important. Without it, our world would be a frozen rock wandering in space. Among other things, the Sun gives us food, energy, seasons, weather, calendars, flowers,. . . "

PLANTS
"Think about that cotton shirt in your closet. The paper these words are printed on. The berries in your breakfast cereal. The carrots in your lunch. If there were no plants in the world, none of these things would exist. Plants vary from microscopic algae in the water to huge sequoia trees. But what exactly is a plant? A plant is a living thing that captures and uses the sun's energy to make its own food. Come meet some of the more than 350,000 species, or kinds, of plants..."

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

• The Life Cycle of a Flower (The Life Cycle). By Molly Aloian, Crabtree Publishing Company, 2004.
• Wildflowers (National Geographic: My First Pocket Guide). By National Geographic, 2002.
• The Flower Hunter : William Bartram, America's First Naturalist. By Deborah Kogan Ray, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
• Flower Power (Nancy Drew Notebooks No. 41). By Carolyn Keene, Aladdin, 2001.
• Wildflowers Around the Year. By Hope Ryden, Clarion Books, 2001.

ADULT BOOKS

• Western Garden Book. By Kathleen Norris Brenzel, Sunset Publishing Corporation, 2001.
• National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers : Eastern Region - Revised Edition (National Audubon Society Field Guide). By John W. Thieret, Knopf, 2001.
• Wacky Plant Cycles. By Valerie Wyatt, Mondo Publishing, 2000.

WEBSITES

• New England Wild Flower Society:
  http://www.newfs.org/