Title: National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals
Author: Catherine D. Hughes
Illustrator:
Genre: Photographic Essay
Theme(s): Animals, Photography, Wildlife, Scenery
Opening line/sentence: “Grasses are the main plants that grow in grasslands: There are not many trees here.”
Brief Book Summary: This book takes a glance at many different animal species found in the wild. Divided by their biomes, the book lists and gives facts about the animals and the places where they are found in the wild. The different animals found in this book are divided into grassland, ocean, desert, forest, and polar regions.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1: Children's Literature - Denise Lockett:
This splashy, colorful book presents animals according to their biomes. Divided by "where they live," the text is organized by grassland, ocean, desert, forest, and polar regions. It offers extensive, age-appropriate activities and questions throughout that are meant to assist parents (or teachers) in exploring the points of the text. The book is durable and of a size friendly to young hands, with large, colorful photos of animals that are instantly appealing: tigers, giraffes, octopi, and penguins are some examples. Unsurprisingly, the book is mammal-focused and it often presents the animals in an anthropomorphic light, using terms such as "Mommy," "jobs," and "babysitters." However, this is forgivable given the very young audience for the book. The text follows a consistent pattern of offering basic facts—"kind," "home," "size," "food," "sounds," and "babies"—regarding each animal. Colorful text boxes and insets around the photos add interesting tid-bits. Not clearly noted but arising anyway, is the issue of predators. That is because the text discusses stripes and camouflage, and the playfulness of both tiger and lion cubs, but delicately refrains from mentioning the reasons for the playful pouncing and the stripes. Other omissions are frustrating as well: the Animal Map meant to illustrate where the featured animals live is simply a picture of the globe on which the continents are color-coded. For example, Africa has both the cheetah ("grassland") and the desert jerboa ("desert") featured in the book, but the map does not distinguish between the two animals' territories, nor does it label where the biomes are on any of the continents. The glossary and index are thorough and yet age-appropriate. The "Parent Tips" section is replete with proposed activities, some of which are useful and some of which are very attenuated from the biological and ecological lessons of the primary text. Reviewer: Denise Lockett
Professional Recommendation/Review #2: CBC Reviewer (National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)): Young children can begin exploring life science with this delightful book, which features common animals from around the world. Stunning photography, quick facts, and attentiong-grabbing trivia will keep youngsters entertained while they learn. (Big kids will like it too!) The book's accuracy and attractive format make it an ideal gift or focus of a center in a classroom. It was named an NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book for 2011. There are "Parent Tips to Extend Learning," which will also be appreciated by teachers; an animal map to encourage integration in the elementary classroom; a glossary; and an index. Grades K-5. 2010, National Geographic Society, 128p, $14.95. Ages 5 to 11.
(PUBLISHER: National Geographic (Washington D.C.:), PUBLISHED: 2010.)
Response to Two Professional Reviews: I see a mixture of reviews from these two professional reviews. They both say that this book is very good when it comes to age appropriateness because of it’s vivid colors and size of words. The first review, however, mentions the fact that a lot of information is omitted from the text that should be included, including why animals have camouflage (so they can hide from predators). Overall, however, for the age range given for this book, 4-8 years, it would be a very appropriate book to have in the classroom or at home.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: The large words on each page would make it very easy for a child to read once they have all the skills needed. It is also a very visually appealing book, with many colors, both for the text and for text boxes that pop out of the page. The real photos used can also give children a good representation of what these animals actually look like, not just cute and cuddly cartoon animals, although many animals are cute and cuddly in real life!
Consideration of Instructional Application: This would be a great book to keep in an early elementary classroom to give children many examples of animals found in the wildlife. If we were to do a project where children were to select one animal from the book to do further research on, they would be able to have a few facts to get them started with. This book would be a great reference to keep in any elementary aged classroom for instruction on any type of animal found in the book.