Cave

Is there anyone who is not fascinated--and even a little frightened--by the dark, enfolding world of a cave?

Matching Wayne McLoughlin's exquisitely detailed, full-color paintings with Diane Siebert's elegant rhymed verse, this lovely volume introduces young readers to speleology. Told from the point of view of a cave that could be located just about anywhere on the planet, the text ranges from easy couplets to more extensive poetic passages that incorporate lessons in such matters as how stalactites and stalagmites form and the kinds of animals that make their homes in the subterranean depths, from crayfish to mites and "troglophiles." The language may prove challenging to some younger readers ("And through the eons I evolved, / My limestone, bit by bit, dissolved / By Nature's forces intertwined"), but with some friendly adult coaching, this makes for a fine vocabulary-building primer, providing enough context to define such daunting terms as technology and anteroom. Older readers, too, will appreciate the author's careful presentation and the artist's images of spiders, underground chambers, and other natural features. Siebert closes with a plea to preserve caves and the creatures that inhabit them, providing a gentle lesson in environmentalism to accompany the less value-charged science. (Ages 4 and older) --Gregory McNamee