Elephants

Amazing Animals

by Kate Riggs

From fleet-footed cheetahs to howling wolves, and from playful dolphins to earth-shaking elephants, the world of animals is wonderfully diverse. This popular and newly expanded series continues traveling the planet to study these and other fascinating animals. Beautiful photos are paired with accessible text to examine the featured animal's appearance, behaviors, and life cycle. Each book also presents a folk story that helps explain a defining feature or behavior.

A basic exploration of the appearance, behavior, and habitat of elephants, Earth's biggest land animals. Also included is a story from folklore explaining why elephants' trunks are so long.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Animals

24 pages, Hardcover

First published October 25, 2010

Reviews

[Leigh Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great non-fiction book in the series for children to learn from. It contains real life pictures full of color just like the others. It also has new vocabulary words for them to learn.

[Lorellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect animal book for a Tot, beautiful pictures and just enough info.

[Katie Michkiosky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great! It does a great job showing real life illustrations for kids to learn from. It also contains good vocabulary words, and is an easy read to enjoy.

Illustration & Word Choice

Lexile = N/A
DRA = 20

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of these books were perfect for our 3 and 5 year olds. Wish there were more!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simpler nonfiction book about elephants with nice close-up photos.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toddlers and preschool

[Little Champs]

2481.1

[Margo Tanenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the advent of Common Core, publishers are bringing out new nonfiction to meet the heavier emphasis on nonfiction throughout Common Core. This new series, Seedlings, is pitch-perfect nonfiction for kindergarten and first grade readers. Its large square format allows lots of full color photos of elephants on vibrant two page spreads with text in very large type. A minimum of information is presented, but in age-appropriate ways, with unusual vocabulary, such as "tusk" presented in color, while the rest of the text is presented in white against a dark background or black against a white background. The book even includes an index, vocabulary words, web sites, and suggestions for further reading. This book is also great for storytimes to provide a nonfiction addition to other elephant stories. The photos are especially outstanding.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

We always begin story time with a GREETING song (The More We Get Together), followed by an ACTION song (Hello Everybody, Let's Clap Our Hands).

This week we did "animal" actions, such as "thump our chests" (like a gorilla) "swing our 'trunks'" (like an elephant). We "rolled our arms" (like a pig rolling in the mud, we said). Stuff like that. Finally we "sit back down" (criss-cross applesauce).

I said to the crowd, "I'm thinking of a really big animal". Of course they had guessed it was an elephant.

I pulled out this book and showed them some of the photographs of elephants, all the while mentioning how BIG they are.

[Faith Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Anmials, Elephants written by Kate Riggs, is the perfect book for introducing Elephants to children. With the simple facts and real life pictures, children will be able to focus on the basic facts of an elephant. From their size, their body parts, where they live, how they eat, what their families are like to how they spend their time during the day. This is a great book to read if the teacher is wanting to go further into the lives of elephants.

[S.N. Arly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice basic non-fiction book on elephants geared toward the pre-school/early grade school crowd. It has a lot of photos of elephants and gives the most basic facts (where elephants live, what they eat, the three kinds of elephants, etc) giving children a vocabulary and starting point for more complicated life cycle and biology as they're ready for it.

[Karla Talbot]

Just discovered this series of animal books. Great photographs. Basic information that will intrigue primary students.

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seedlings is a fairly new nonfiction series for kids. Readers are introduced to different animals through photographs and simple text. Includes a glossary at the end.