What Do Roots Do?

by Kathleen V. Kudlinski

Now available in paperback! Kids can peek underground, dig into the wonders of roots and discover all the amazing things roots do for trees and plants. Whether children are junior gardeners or simply curious about the trees they climb and the flowers they pick, this picture book shows the side of the story they don't see-the underground story. Kids and teachers alike will love this entertaining yet informative text that features a wide array of plants found in many different regions of the country. Perfect for classroom units on botany. The simple text is accompanied by abundantly green oil-and-acrylic spreads that keep perfect step. -School Library Journal

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Plants, Nonfiction, Childrens, Nature

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Kathleen Kudlinski is the author of 40 children’s books. Her works range from picture books to the YA level and include natural history, biographies and historical novels.
When not writing, she is a popular speaker and writing instructor. Building on a BS in Biology and six years of classroom teaching experience, Kathleen later trained as a “Master Teaching Artist” with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts as well as presenting at regional and national conferences. Now she eagerly Skypes with classroom, book-, and home-school groups, world-wide.

In her spare time, she paints and leads several SCBWI (Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators) critique groups, and teaches writing for children.

She writes at home beside a deep, wild lake in Guilford CT or at her woodland cabin in Weathersfield, VT with a a rescue macaw clinging to her shoulder and a pitbull warming her feet.

Reviews

[Alycia Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good one! This particular book goes through what all roots do for everything that comes from the roots. I ended up purchasing this book after reading it, because I can see so much use for it in my future classroom.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about how roots help a plant! Great illustrations that help children connect why roots are needed!

[Liz E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy nature read alouds that rhyme in our homeschool. Some further back matter would’ve been a nice addition. My 7, 5 and 1 year olds enjoyed it.

[Shianne McMinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Do Roots Do? is a book about about roots. It talks about the purpose of roots, and why they are there. The readers learn many things about roots such as how they keep a plant in place, how the roots are there to suck in water for the plant to grow. It even talks about how some plants have roots that grow vegetables that we eat. Overall, this book gives lots of great information on everything you’d want to know about roots.

What Do Root Do? is an information picture book all about roots. It is an in informational book because it contains many facts about roots. It tells why plants have roots, the many purposes roots serve, and why roots are important. The book contains very realistic double page drawings on every page. The author probably choose to use realistic drawings because this book in an informational book and is therefore important the book provides accurate and realistic drawings of roots. One critical issue of informational texts is that they can be boring. But this book goes about explaining roots in a way that can make it more interesting and keep the reader interested. This book gives all the information about roots while rhyming. It makes the book have a nice rhythm to it and is much more interesting than just reading cold hard facts about roots. This book with drawings, short sentences, and rhymes and easily understood language is definitely geared toward younger readers. Therefore integrating rhymes through the book is very effective in keeping the young readers interested. Overall this book is effective in providing information about roots as well as doing it in a fun an interesting way.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought What Do Roots Do? was a clever way of introducing the importance of the roots. The book talked about how the roots were important for the growth of plants and trees. This book also tells the story in rhyme and I think it would be an excellent way to explore the qualities of a poem. The students could make their own poem about a plant/flower that they created from their own thoughts and draw a picture of what their plant/flower would look like and incorporating roots. The nonfiction conventions in this story were primarily the illustrations of the roots and their functions. All in all, I believe this book could be used for a writing lesson as well as a science lesson. The book would be appropriate for 1st grade students.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What Roots Do?" is a picture book about roots written in couplet verse. It looks at first glance like fiction, but in my mind this is really a non-fiction book. It's all rooted in fact, with a style that appeals to young fiction fans. Beautifully illustrated in colorful tempera or oil painting, nature scene by nature scene, the artist reveals what we see above ground as well as the underground root structure of a variety of nature's plants, trees, and food. Great educational book.

For ages 4-7.

[Heather Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very educational book that tells children the purpose of the roots of a plant. It has very clear illustrations that show many different roots from a variety of plants The wording is easy enough for children to understand the book without getting confused. The book is also told in rhyme which can let a teacher use the book for more than just the science lesson about roots but also a language lesson about rhyming and use of words.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great illustrations, nice poetic message - we enjoyed this book and the importance of roots to a plant. (Which of course plants seeds for later about symbolic and or cultural roots.)

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to what roots are and what they do. She even added information about roots we eat. Great science book!

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice illustrations

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A poetic ode to roots. Helpful for encouraging young children to think about the part of plants they rarely see.

[Jessika Brokel]

This book is great for students interested in plants and how they grow and develop. This book is about how the root system works in different types of plants and how they are different. This book also explains that every plant has roots no matter where it grows.