After I read Gail Gibbons book, Corn, I realized how I little I know about corn. Sweet corn, corn muffins, popcorn are all family favorites but corn as an ingredient in soap, glue, and packing materials is new to me. This book, in fact, is filled with all sorts of interesting information on corn and brings a whole new appreciation of this common plant. Written for young children K-3, this book can educate the older crowd too.
After describing the history of corn in the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and the importance of corn to the Pilgrims, Gibbons distinguishes between the four different types of corn, and shows how each is used. Next, the author describes the planting, growing, pollination and harvesting of corn by a typical farm family. Especially interesting is the section on pollination that includes a diagram showing pollen fertilizing an egg and relating corn silk to corn kernels. A sequence of pictures on planting and harvesting of corn by large industrial farms shows the reader the many different kinds of machinery used including a corn picker, corn combine, and corn forage harvester. A brief summary of the many ways corn can be used and a fact sheet on corn complete the text.
The amount of information that is packed into this book is amazing especially in light of the fact that the most pages only have a couple of sentences. The illustrations, of course, add enormously to the content and are attractive and appealing. Using pen and watercolor, Gibbons uses a blue-green pallet accented with many shades of red that makes the whole text lively and interesting.