THE SMALLEST LIFE AROUND US

A usable but slack first look, with characterless illustrations that miss the mark in both conception and execution. Anderson has readers growing their own microbes on old bread, cottage cheese, etc.; then she identifies the molds, bacteria, algae, and protozoa they might see there. She mentions some of the changes brought about by microbes--grapes become wine, bread rises with yeast, etc.--and then in experiments not very different from the earlier series she tells how to use yeast to make dough rise in a jar (a waste of dough, when the experimenters could be making bread), get curds and whey from milk, and watch wet grass decay. Being younger and easier than Patent's Microscopic Animals and Plants (1974) and other juveniles on microorganisms, this could serve as a guide to early-grade classroom projects, but none of it is very conducive to a sense of discovery.