A flying V never fails to draw attention, but the geese on display aren t forming letters for our benefit. Indeed, the shape gets a flock from point A to point B in the most energy-efficient way. In this book, beginning readers will learn about the many habits of geese. If your backyard is populated with as many creatures as there are volumes in the Backyard Wildlife series, it’s time to put the house on the market. Taken in smaller doses, though, these brief, colorful volumes continue to be a solid first step to helping the youngest readers make connections between what they see and what they don’t. A quibble: the chapter headings listed in the table of contents do not appear on later pages. That aside, the left-hand text (one or two short sentences) and right-hand photos make the books easy to navigate and understand. Geese, as it turns out, aren’t particularly exciting, which makes one wonder why Geese doesn’t begin with the main event: fuzzy yellow goslings. Start here, animal fans, and then let deeper series guide budding interests. Grades K-2. --Daniel Kraus