BIG WORDS FOR LITTLE SCIENTISTS

``Little scientists'' who are not put off by the condescending title of this work, created in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History, will find a trivial, meandering alphabet of science terms. For each entry, readers are encouraged to ``break it up,'' with word origins given to help impart meaning. However, Albee is not always consistent in her explanations. In the introduction, archaeology is broken into archaeo, or ``ancient,'' and logy, which means the science or study of. Yet under the entry for archeology, the first part of the word is broken into arkhe, for ``beginning.'' The pronunciation for one is ar-kee-OL-uh-jee, and for the other, ahr-kee-AHL-uh-jee. The definitions of terms, as varied as archaeopteryx, botany, bioluminescence, latitude, and skeleton, are interspersed with brief biographies of scientists and other sidebars. Of limited use. (full-color photographs, glossary, index, not seen) (Nonfiction. 8-10)