Gary Larson often uses words that are not in the daily vocabulary of many of his readers. Some students will enjoy looking words up in the dictionary to understand exactly what Larson means. For others, context will shed enough light on what Larson is talking about, and they will skip cheerfully past unfamiliar words to continue enjoying the story.

This is an excellent book for reading aloud in the classroom. Students appreciate the contrast between the juvenile storytelling structure and the ironic commentary on the real motivations of plants and animals.

In this book, the text plainly spells out for the reader the difference between Harriet's perspective on each scene (as it appears on first glance) and the underlying motivations for what is going on. The illustrations also make this difference clear, but more subtly. Harriet never understands what is really going on around her as...