Book excerpt: This easy-to-follow, full-colour guide was created for instructors teaching plant structure at the high school, college, and university levels. It benefits from the experience of the authors, who in teaching plant anatomy over many years, came to realize that students learn best by preparing their own microscope slides from fresh plant samples. The exercises contained in this book have been tested, require minimal supplies and equipment, and use plants that are readily available. Detailed instructions are given for sectioning and staining of plant material. The book contains a glossary of terms, an index, and a list of suppliers of materials required. A CD-ROM of all the illustrations is included for easy downloading into PowerPoint presentations. "Although a number of new plant anatomy texts have been published in recent years, none is as innovative, exciting and user-friendly as "Teaching Plant Anatomy Through Creative Laboratory Exercises" by Peterson, Peterson and Melville. What makes this book so usable from high school biology courses on through to upper level university plant structure labs is the wealth of experience that the authors have incorporated into this comprehensive clearly illustrated text. Using mostly photomicrographs of hand sections and wonderfully clear colour illustrations, they cover all aspects of plant structure from organelles to organs. The book also outlines some easy to use techniques, such as hand sections and clearings and macerations, which will certainly be very useful for any plant related lab. This book really does bring plant anatomy to life and will be a must for any course that deals with plant structure even if it's just to prepare plant material for molecular techniques. An excellent contribution to any botanical teaching where you want your students to get a hands-on approach to the subject."... Dr. Usher Posluszny, University of Guelph