Melissa Stewart
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Life in a Wetland

Life in a Wetland

by Melis­sa Stewart

Lern­er Books, 2003

for Grades 5–9

ISBN 978–0‑8225–4687‑0

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

The Flori­da Ever­glades wet­land ecosys­tem includes a half dozen dif­fer­ent plant com­mu­ni­ties and a wide assort­ment of ani­mal life. For thou­sands of years, this diver­si­ty allowed the many species to remain healthy in the face of ever-chang­ing water lev­els, wild­fires, and hur­ri­canes. How­ev­er, the influx of humans, and the con­se­quen­tial drain­ing of large por­tions of the wet­land, have severe­ly dis­rupt­ed this bal­ance and threat­en the sur­vival of the ecosys­tem. With plans to restore the wet­lands already begun, can this frag­ile com­mu­ni­ty survive?

Honors and Awards

  • Nation­al Sci­ence Teach­ers Asso­ci­a­tion Rec­om­mend­ed Title

Reviews

“Life in a Wet­land does a won­der­ful job explain­ing how all aspects of this frag­ile ecosys­tem inter­act. The rich, descrip­tive text and pho­tographs help read­ers imag­ine they are on a very per­son­al tour of the Ever­glades … Read­ers will gain a good under­stand­ing of what a wet­land is and how the var­i­ous com­po­nents of a wet­land inter­act with and influ­ence each oth­er. Stun­ning wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy sup­ports the text. This book com­ple­ments Nation­al Sci­ence Stan­dard C for grades 5–8, par­tic­u­lar­ly on pop­u­la­tions and ecosys­tems. I would rec­om­mend this book to any teacher who cov­ers bio­mes, food webs and food chains, or nutri­ent cycling as they relate to an ecosys­tem.” (NTSA)

“Life in a Wet­land describes the Ever­glades, from its riv­er of saw­grass to the sandy soils of its pinelands, very well. Stew­art flows seam­less­ly between top­ics and intro­duces the read­er to the tremen­dous vari­ety of plants, ani­mals, and nat­ur­al process­es that are the Ever­glades. The use of plants and ani­mals to con­nect the var­i­ous parts of the book, as well as the var­i­ous parts of the Ever­glades , is appeal­ing. Life in a Wet­land is well writ­ten for its audi­ence, with a straight­for­ward style that doesn’t sac­ri­fice sci­ence for sim­plic­i­ty. The book is nice­ly designed with beau­ti­ful pic­tures and a look and feel that will appeal to its young audi­ence.” (Book­list)

Behind the Book

“Trav­el­ing to the Flori­da Ever­glades real­ly influ­enced the way I wrote this book. By show­ing a series of ani­mals going through their dai­ly rou­tines and fol­low­ing their move­ments from one habi­tat to anoth­er, I was able to cre­ate a liv­ing nar­ra­tive that allows read­ers to feel as though they are tru­ly expe­ri­enc­ing this unique ecosys­tem firsthand.”

Series at a Glance

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Ecosys­tems in Action

Life in a Lake
Life in a Wetland
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Life in a Wetland

by Melis­sa Stewart

Lern­er Books, 2003

for Grades 5–9

ISBN 978–0‑8225–4687‑0

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.