When I was probably five or so, you could get a new volume in this series at the grocery store (like Price Chopper or something?) for a couple bucks with some amount of groceries, maybe every month or so. (Mom, feel free to chime in with the details. I was pretty vague on the whole thing at the time: I was more or less under the impression that the grocery store was specifically for handing these out to me.) I got almost the whole 22ish-volume set; the one or two volumes I was missing caused me untold pain and anxiety. I looooooooooved them. This encyclopedia is why I grew up obsessed with things like pangolins.
Which by the way if you were wondering what to get me for Christmas, that's what I want.
This book has fantastic animal photos that are very pleasing to look at paired with engaging yet educational writing that taught me about aardvarks and many other animals. This book changed my life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.