Little Kids First Big Book of Animals

Little Kid’s First Big Book of Animals     By Catherine Hughes

Published by National Geographic in 2010    128 Pages

Animal books are a regular request from both teachers and students. Though there are many great books that treat individual animals, I also favor stocking single volume animal encyclopedias.

A single volume animal encyclopedia is a good match for the eclectic curiosity that often informs students’ interest. Additionally, since single volume encyclopedias cover a range of subjects, their organizational structure can identify relationships and connections between the animals.

There are several animal encyclopedias that I rate highly; however, they are typically written for upper elementary students and up. There is a real need for this type of book for younger grades.

This particular book is not an encyclopedia per se, but it has some of the features of one, and it is a good scaffold for preparing kids to use reference materials.

The layout is very attractive and full of great photos, and the book is organized by habitat. Grassland, ocean, desert, forest, and polar regions are covered. Text is interspersed with the photos in a variety of formats, which separates the information into manageable chunks. Additionally, it is written at a 1st to 2nd grade level.

National Geographic has already published several books in this series, I shall keep an eye out for them.