You say you have a kid who loves dinosaurs, knows everything about dinosaurs, has read every single book about dinosaurs. We say – not this one! This enormously clever, graphically playful, and informative more-than abecedary goes beyond being an introduction to dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals to offering a whole... Read More
Here's a spectacular addition to your alphabet collection, a chunky little pop-up book with a graphically thrilling rendering of each letter of the alphabet. No A is for apple here; each letter is its own celebration. The first clue is the holographic cover; depending on how you tilt the book,... Read More
This extravagant book by a French author/illustrator (and first published in France) contains handsome woodcuts of more than 300 animals, from aardvark to zebu, categorized by size, characteristics, and environment. Zoo-ology also has the distinction of being the biggest book I've ever reviewed. It came in its own... Read More
Take a jaunt through the animal kingdom to identify the noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, and feet of a variety of creatures, thirty in all. On the first of each pair of double page spreads is a question, such as, "What do you do with a nose like this?" which... Read More
A young girl demonstrates the properties of wind through her own observations and a series of easy-to-read-and-do activities and experiments, using common household materials, that teach science through experience. The collage illustrations are amiable and appealing and the question-filled text will get readers thinking, testing, and drawing scientific conclusions. There... Read More
What's more adorable than a baby panda? How about 16 of them, resting on two big white towels? The cute factor of this nonfiction color photo essay is off the charts. At the Wolong Nature Reserve in China, giant pandas are raised and studied by researchers who are helping to... Read More
Readers should feel free to judge this book by its cover: The illustration of Picasso towering over Paris, stepping towards the viewer with a grin on his face makes clear that he is not going to heed the call to Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! Read More
In a veritable visual panorama of dinosaurs, eight classic dinosaurs are presented in two ways: first as skeletons and then as living creatures. On the upper right side of the first oversized white two-page spread are gigantic red capital letters: BRACHIOSAURUS. Stretched across the page is a painting of the... Read More
You've never seen an alphabet book like this before. A is for alligator, but the accompanying picture is composed of hundreds of uppercase and lowercase black A's. Each page contains an animal-bat, camel, dog, elephant- rendered entirely in its initial letters. The giraffe's neck is so tall, the head is... Read More
What fun! Sit down with a four-year-old, a kindergartener, a first grader, and “do” this book together. On the left-hand page of each spread, you’ll find a living being and the start of a question: “If a calf grows and becomes a cow…” Then look at the right-hand page where... Read More
“Here is a ship that holds her place.” So begins the simple, lighthearted, and poetic text that describes the role of the U. S. lightship Ambrose, a ship that stayed anchored close to shore in all weather and acted as a floating lighthouse to other passing vessels. Cheerful and appealing... Read More
Some children are too afraid of dogs. Others are not afraid enough. How should we behave when we encounter a strange dog? Harry, a longhaired, chocolate-dappled dachshund, encounters a young boy and gives him a series of concrete and practical instructions on how to be friends with a dog. The... Read More
Learn about sharks and their way of life, thanks to a punchy text, easily accessible to all, water-logged acrylic and pastel illustrations, and cool facts—"Sand tiger sharks give birth to just two live young— which is all that's left after those two have eaten the other six babies in their... Read More
Open this sweeping, soaring overview of turkey vultures and you'll sigh, it's so ravishing. You never thought you'd care about those scavengers you’ve probably seen swooping high above the highways, but the combination of the easy-to-read poetic text and Steve Jenkins's magnificent cut paper collages in bold colors against a... Read More