The Usborne World of Animals was written by Susanna Davidson and Mike Unwin (pp. 128).

The Summary

This book is about animals and how they live in the world. The book has ten sections. The first section covers topics about how animals live in general. Some of the topics in this section include how animals move, eat, smell, taste, touch, hide, etc. The next 8 sections

The next 8 sections cover different animals in different regions of the world. Examples include Toucans in South America, Bears in North America, Gorillas in Africa, Otters in Europe, Panda Bears in Asia, Kangaroos in Australia, and even Elephant Seals in Antartica.

The Good

This book is full of rich photographs and even illustrations that provide additional learning. The photos depict animals in daily life such as a tiger running, polar bears playing, anteaters searching for food, bats sleeping, monkeys jumping, etc. Children will enjoy the pictures tremendously.

The text is fairly readable. The font is normally large with smaller text being of less importance. There is even a little geography mixed as the book organized the animals based on the region they are from. At the beginning of the section is a map showing where on the continent the animals were from.

The Bad

There is little to criticize about this book. One minor problem is the maps are drawn way out of scale. Asia, in particular, looks really strange. Of course, this is not a geography book but it is distracting somewhat in the learning experience.

Another small complaint could be the superficial nature of the text. There are more animals than there is time to really go deeply into. Again, for an expert this m ay be troublesome but this may not be much of a problem for the typical child.

The Recommendation

This text is 5/5 stars. As a teacher, you can use it for reading to your students or add it to your library for personal reading. The photos and colors will provide a vided learning experience for students for years to come.