Review Detail

Kids Nonfiction 663
Gorgeous Book on Nature
Overall rating
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
4.0
Learning Value
 
4.0
Using beautifully illustrated examples from nature, different categories of natural objects and creatures are are explained in brief paragraphs surrounded by a huge variety of labeled examples. Some of the categories include leaves, fruits and vegetables, and flowers, as well as fins and scales, shells, and fur and hair. There's a wide variety of examples given on each two page sprea; I didn't count, but there must be fifty small illustrations of flowers. The colors depend a lot on the examples. Flowers are shown in lots of pinks and reds, vegetables in greens, and shells in browns and grays.

At the end of the book, there is a chart of twelve patterns and shapes such as round, wavy, branched, and striped, and a few examples given for each. Young readers can then go back through the pages and find further examples of these shapes.
Good Points
I can't think of any shape book that has such extensive illustrations, and this can't be beat for attractive design or number of examples. My only criticism is that there is extensive use of cursive font for labeling, and my students are no longer taught how to write cursive, so it is like a foreign language to them! Since cursive is usually taught in second or third grade, when it is taught, this also makes the book slightly harder to use with emerging readers.

Like Base's 1993 Animalia, this is a rich depository of lovely examples of a wide range of natural objects that will lead to hours of pleasant perusing.
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