I don’t know about you, but I have a lad who is fascinated by a variety of animals and insects. He enjoys focusing on different how they are the same but different. How sometimes what they do relates to what people can do, and how they can often do it better than we can. A book like “How Animals Build” is a book that appeals to him. Burrows, tunnels, nests, towns and much more. Come learn with us won’t you?
Lonely Planet Kids brings us another fascinating book to read, How Animals Build. Within the pages of this delightful read you will see termites town, penguin rock nests. bee hives, birds weaving nests and bowers, seeing fish living in rocks, bears hiding in ice packs, and beavers living in a lodge. So many different animals, and so many different ways to build.
I loved the illustrations contained within the pages, bright and colourful, reflecting well the variety of colour found within the animal kingdom.
I loved the fold out pages and the lift the flap elements. It’s just a lovely way to cram more information into a book in an interactive manner that helps the reader retain the information. This is a book you can go through several times, being amazed at the variety in the animals around us.
Did you know that a spider went into space and learned to adapt to lack of gravity?! We were both surprised. You can find a video showing the web creation here.
What I thought:
I thought the book was well done, but felt that they missed a crucial couple of groups: the sheer variety of insect and spider nests, and reptiles were scarcely covered. My son had hoped to see crocodile mounds, and bees that nest in hollow tubes, and spider webs of a variety of sorts. He was impressed with the variety of animals nests that were included and we even looked up the inside a termite town.
The rest of the book, with it’s fold out pages and lift the flap elements was fantastic. Brightly coloured pages that were loaded with facts. We both learned much! Which is an excellent thing to do eh? Leaf rollers “I’ve seen those before mom!” The bunny tunnels “They do a lot of damage in towns don’t they mom?” The beehives brought back memories of going to Clovermead and seeing the bees in action. Just a thoroughly interesting book with lots of talking points. Well done.
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How Animals Build
Moira Butterfield & Tim Hutchinson
Lonely Planet Kids
Hardcover, non-fiction, pull-out, lift the flap
Animals, activity book, elementary, animal homes.
12 pages (plus fold outs), 8-12 years.
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.
Where to find: Amazon Link.
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Some other animal books you might be interested in: Animals at Night. Animal Camouflage. Building animals from Lego. Magnificent book of Dinosaurs. The Animal Book.
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