In examining the physical and biological stages of decay, Manning is more concerned with process than with atmosphere. In his eyes, a ruin isn't deserted; rather, one tenant has been replaced by another (or a whole host). When the human residents of his farmhouse left Scotland for America some hundred years back, new families soon moved in: swallows and barn owls, lichens and fungi, spiders and wasps and earwigs, and lots of bad weather. As part of the Read and Wonder series from Candlewick, the book has annotated notes that painlessly give the facts relating to what is happening on the page, but they are also uninspired globs of information. Manning's illustrations are first-rate watercolor-and-pencil renderings, and the detailed drawings of flora and fauna that accompany the notes are beautifully observed. A sweet tribute to ruins, but so tame it seems to cower. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4+)