Classifying Living Things by Darlene R. Stile is a great little book for looking up information about how scientists organize all the animals in the world. At 48 pages, it's just long enough to give a thorough answer to inquiring little minds, but short enough to enjoy as a read aloud. However, if you're basing your home school on the Word of God, this resource might do more harm than good.

Classifying Living Things has five chapters, a glossary, a page for more information and an index. The book starts out by talking about the difference between living and non-living things. It then moves on to cover why living things are different. Next, and explanation is given as to how scientists group living things together. We are then told how this system of grouping was invented and finally we look inside each grouping for more detail.

While this book is correct on its teaching on the groupings of animals, it is not correct in its assumption that all animals evolved from common ancestors. Most books in public schools are just like this one in that they totally ignore the teachings of the Bible and rely solely on the wisdom of man to arrive at their current level of understanding. The Bible teaches us that wisdom first starts with fearing God. The writers of this book do not fear God. If they did, they would respect the creation account in the Bible enough to include it in this book. If you are teaching your children to fear God, you will probably need to talk at length about the differences with your children either before or during your reading time. If children hear about evolution as if it was absolutely true they will start to believe it instead of the Bible's creation account.

There is a lot of interesting information in this book which makes it a good addition to any home schoolers book shelf, but read with caution because God is not glorified in these pages.

Product Review by Lyria Moore, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March, 2009