Panorama: A Fold Out Book

Panorama: A Fold Out Book       Fani Marceau & Joelle Jolivet

Abrams Books For Young Readers 2007

This is a very impressive book that illustrates habitats around the world through gorgeous woodcut style art. The edges of each panel shares some commonalities with its adjacent neighbors. The result blends together seamlessly, yet each panel shows a distinct location in the world.

There is a huge variety of habitats and localities depicted in the 18 accordian style panels that comprise this book. When completely unfurled, the book extends to 15 feet. As you can imagine, this book makes an impressive read aloud. The effect is always sensational.

I find this book ideal for introducing different habitats to students, especially in conjunction with classroom study of the topic. One can use the art to tease out some of  fundamental similarities of different parts of the world in terms of types of habitats. Additionally, the art allows opportunities to share background knowledge while simultaneously gleaning new details.

Once all of the panels have been unfurled, you can flip the entire structure around in order to show what each location looks like at night.

This book is extremely sparse in terms of text. It has about the same proportion of text to image as you would find with photos and their captions. Therefore, it is not intended to provide depth and detail. It does excel, however, as an introduction for younger students, and it makes a fantastic read aloud. 

I use this book for grades K-3