Animal Cells: What Makes a Tiger Striped? (Let’s Relate to Genetics). Penny Dowdy. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2010. 48 pp., pbk. & hc., $11.95 (pbk.) $21.56 (hc.). ISBN 978-0-7787-4964-6 (pbk.)., ISBN 978-0-7787-4947-9 (RLB.). Subject Headings: Cells-Juvenile literature. Cytology-Juvenile literature. Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-14. Review by Barbara McMillan. **** /4

	Cells: How are Living Things Built? (Let’s Relate to Genetics). Marina Cohen. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2010. 48 pp., pbk. & hc., $11.95 (pbk.) $21.56 (hc.). ISBN 978-0-7787-4962-2 (pbk.)., ISBN 978-0-7787-4945-5 (RLB.). Subject Headings: Cells-Juvenile literature. Cytology-Juvenile literature. Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-14. Review by Barbara McMillan. **** /4

	DNA: What Makes You the Person You Are? (Let’s Relate to Genetics). Natalie Hyde. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2010. 48 pp., pbk. & hc., $11.95 (pbk.) $21.56 (hc.). ISBN 978-0-7787-4965-3 (pbk.)., ISBN 978-0-7787-4948-6 (RLB.). Subject Heading: DNA-Juvenile literature. Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-14. Review by Barbara McMillan. **** /4

	Genetic Engineering: Can We Improve on Nature? (Let’s Relate to Genetics). Marina Cohen. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2010. 48 pp., pbk. & hc., $11.95 (pbk.) $21.56 (hc.). ISBN 978-0-7787-4967-7 (pbk.)., ISBN 978-0-7787-4950-9 (RLB.). Subject Heading: Genetic engineering-Juvenile literature. Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-14. Review by Barbara McMillan. **** /4

	Plant Cells: Are a Plant’s Cells More Complex Than Yours? (Let’s Relate to Genetics). Penny Dowdy. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2010. 48 pp., pbk. & hc., $11.95 (pbk.) $21.56 (hc.). ISBN 978-0-7787-4963-9 (pbk.)., ISBN 978-0-7787-4946-2 (RLB.). Subject Heading: Plant cells and tissues-Juvenile literature. Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-14. Review by Barbara McMillan. **** /4

	Traits and Attributes: Who Else is Like You? (Let’s Relate to Genetics). Natalie Hyde. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2010. 48 pp., pbk. & hc., $11.95 (pbk.) $21.56 (hc.). ISBN 978-0-7787-4966-0 (pbk.)., ISBN 978-0-7787-4949-3 (RLB.). Subject Heading: Genetics-Juvenile literature. Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-14. Review by Barbara McMillan. **** /4

excerpt:

Biologists have classified animal cells into four different categories: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nerve. When you think about all of the jobs the organs of your body have, it is amazing that the cells fall into only four groups. (From Animal Cells.)

Stem cells are amazing cell because they are unspecialized. Stem cells are found in adult tissues or human embryos. They are like blanks. If the right genes are switched on and the right genes are switched off, stem cells can be turned into any cell in your body! This discovery is one of the most exciting discoveries in our time. Imagine the possibilities. Maybe one day, people with damaged and defective cells can have them replaced with brand new ones. Scientists are already busy making these miracles happen. (From Cells.)

Deep inside each cell of every living thing [even the extinct ones] are instructions for its shape, size, and texture. These instruction are “written” in a chemical code known as deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA for short. The code works like a blueprint… This chemical code comes in a bundle so small, it fits inside a cell. Yet DNA controls everything about life on Earth. The DNA code can be written as an infinite number of patterns, which has created an amazing diversity of plants and animals on our planet. (From DNA.)

From chocolate to chicken, soy to salmon, genetically modified [GM] food is all around us. About 70 percent of food in the United States and Canada contains genetically modified ingredients… Some countries are very strict when it comes to labeling GM foods. European countries, Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand require GM food to be labeled. In the United States and Canada, however, GM food labeling is voluntary. Companies do not have to tell consumers that heir food have been genetically modified if they don’t want to! (From Genetic Engineering.)

Animals are, in many ways, more complex organisms than plants. However, plant cells are more complex than animal cells. Plants produce their own foods. Plants must withstand forces from nature without protective coverings. They must survive without shelter. Plants also have more kinds of cell structures than animal cells do. (From Plant Cells.)

Mendel’s laws tell us that some genes are dominant, while others are recessive. But what makes a gene recessive? Why is brown hair dominant while red hair is recessive. In most cases the dominant allele, such as brown hair, contains the code for an enzyme. An enzyme is an active kind of protein. The recessive gene does not have the enzyme… Even if you have only one dominant gene for a trait, it will often produce enough of the enzyme for the trait to appear… To create brown hair the body makes a pigment called eumelanin. People with high levels of eumelanin have brown or black hair; those without this pigment have blond hair. (From Traits and Attributes.)

Authors Marina Cohen, Penny Dowdy, and Natalie Hyde have each written two books in the “Let’s Relate to Genetics” series. They adhere to the familiar format for Crabtree’s nonfiction books for teens, which includes a minimum of one stock image, table, or diagram per page and from two to twenty fact-based statements and the occasional question. On the majority of odd-numbered pages in each book, a text box with the heading “In the Lab” is featured. These boxes generally include interesting tidbits of information from scientific research, the impact of science on society, or issues arising from the text that an author would like readers to consider more deeply. As a result, one reads that “human brain cells can hold five times as much information as an encyclopedia” (Cells, p. 21), that “[a] researcher can take out a patent on a cultivar he or she has created” (Plant Cells, p. 39), and is asked to construct arguments for and against seeds being “engineered so that after growing, they will not produce new seeds” (Genetic Engineering, p. 37).

    In addition, each book in the series incorporates a short list of books and websites where additional information on the featured topic can be found, a glossary of terms, an index, and an activity or first-hand investigation on a page titled “Notebook.” “Notebook” provides readers with the directions for making an edible model of a cell (Animal Cells; Cells), extracting DNA from a strawberry (DNA), cloning a cabbage (Genetic Engineering), determining the best plant part to use in propagating a geranium (Plant Cells), and testing relatives to determine whether fingerprints are inherited or random (Traits and Attributes).

     Manitoba students enrolled in Grade 8 and Grade 9 learn about cell theory, the major structures in plants and animal cells, mitotic and meiotic cell division, sexual and asexual reproduction, genetics, and the biotechnologies used in genetic engineering, genetic screening, cloning, and DNA fingerprinting. Many of the knowledge outcomes in the science curricula for Grades 8 and 9 are topics that are addressed in the “Let’s Relate to Genetics” series.

     Owing to the quality of the writing, the use of illustrations that clarify the historical and contemporary information of the texts, and the link to science curricula, the series is highly recommended.

Highly Recommended.

Barbara McMillan is a teacher educator and a professor of science education in the Faculty of Education, the University of Manitoba.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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