Skunks

Backyard Wildlife

by Emily K. Green

Have you ever smelled the scent of a skunk? There is a reason other animals stay away from skunks! Kids will find out why skunks smell, the physical characteristics of skunks, where they live, and what they eat to survive.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

24 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2010

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is the case with most books about animals, this is a simple book with lots of glorious and beautiful photographs of the skunk that is designed for young readers to learn about animals that they may encounter over the course of their youth. This particular book is organized on a scale of reading from one to five where it sits at a level one, with repetition of words to aid in vocabulary learning, repetitive and simple sentence construction (unlike this review, for instance), and strong visual support. It is striking, as someone who reads and reviews a lot of material of this nature, that so many images are repeated from book to book. For example, I have seen the photo here showing a skunk hissing at a cute baby bear to scare it away in at least two or three other books on skunks that I have read, which means that image is likely to be one whose rights are relatively easy to use, as opposed to the many other photos that one could use of skunks. Simple text and stock photos would appear to make it easy to write and publish a book like this, which is one reason why we see so many efforts.

As mentioned earlier, this book is a simple one aimed at young children, perhaps even pre-school age when it comes to their learning to read and their requesting this book to be read to them. The book is a short one at 24 pages (a pretty standard length for books for pre-readers and early readers) and it is divided into several sections. The author begins by asking what are skunks, and answering it in terms of a visual rather than a functional or scientific way. After that there is further discussion of what skunks look like, the better to recognize them if one is in the woods or if one finds a skunk close to home. There is then a discussion of what skunks eat, including plants, insects, and scavenging around the garbage. They also eat cat food for those who keep skunks as a pet, which this author does not talk about. After that there is a look at where skunks live, and how it is that they stay safe through warning and then spraying those who threaten them. Finally, the book ends with a glossary, where to go if one wants to learn more, and an index.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an easy reader book, this was very informative and the pictures were great. I read this to my two boys last night, ages 2 & 4, and they really liked it as they recognize skunks & they were very interested in finding out what they eat, how they spray, etc.

[Abbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice informative nonfiction
Read on Epic books with my 2 year old