All the Holling books are fine, but to my taste this one is weakened a little by two things. First, unless I miss my guess, the color-plates, though signed "The Hollings", are really by Louise, and her style just doesn't warm the way her husband's does. Second, although the book is power-packed with information, good values, and other vital nutrients, the story on which all those are heaped is more than a little wooden, indeed recalling the worst excesses of The Bobsey Twins. Even so, it beats most kid's non-fiction, of that day and this, in cards and spades. Besides, no reader is so smart as to know all the useful info which this book imparts. Find out how make a bottle window, why horses and cattle react to the wind they way they do, and what to do when lost in the great outdoors -- if you can find any which isn't paved-over. Includes extensive glossary; would that latter-day kids' books were so comprehensive. ( )