Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins
Explore different types of animal eyes in this gorgeous nonfiction picture book by the amazing Steve Jenkins. In this book, Jenkins not only talks about the different kinds of animals eyes, explaining them in just the right amount of detail, but also looks at specific animals and their unique eyes. Jenkins shares lots of facts, carefully chosen to be fascinating and fun. One never knows what will be found on the next page and whether it will be looking right at you.
Jenkins makes sure that children will learn about evolution in this picture book. His emphasis throughout is on the evolution from simple light-sensitive eyespots to the complex camera eyes of humans and hawks. As always, his information is well-chosen and interesting. It is accompanied by large-format images that are paired with smaller images that show the animals entire body. This is science information at its best.
The eyes have it! This is a book that belongs in all public libraries. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Reviewed from library copy.
Galapagos George by Jean Craighead George, illustrated by Wendell Minor
A story of evolution and extinction, this picture book explores the incredible life of the famous Lonesome George a tortoise who was the last of his kind. The book begins by explaining how a million years ago a tortoise was driven from South America and carried to the island of San Cristobal near the equator. There she laid eggs, used her long neck to reach food, and passed on her genetics. Thousands of years later, all of the turtles looked different with long necks and shells that curved back to give their necks more room. When humans discovered the Galapagos Islands, they quickly decimated the turtle population which dwindled down to only a few thousand from the hundreds of thousands that had lived there. A hundred years later, the giant tortoise population had reduced even further, so that one lone turtle remained. He was moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station and protected but no other turtle of the species was ever found.
George creates a vivid story of the power of evolution in our world and the effects of humans on animal species. She steadily shows how weather forces and natural disasters impact animals as well, moving them from place to place and changing their habitats. As the animals change slowly, George keeps the text clear and factual, making for a book that moves quickly and is filled with fascinating scientific information.
Minor’s illustrations are lush and lovely. They are filled with the light of sun, bursting on the horizon in tropical colors. He also shows the barren landscape of the Galapagos clearly and the frank regard of a tortoise looking right at the reader. There is a sense of loneliness for much of the book both when the book is about the first tortoise and then later when there is one left. That connection between the two lone turtles is made clearly in the illustrations.
Fascinating, distressing and yet ultimately hopeful, this nonfiction picture book will work well in science classrooms as well as library collections. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Reviewed from copy received from HarperCollins.
Island: A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin
Follow the birth of a group of islands to the present day in this book that beautifully documents the wonders of the Galapagos. Opening with the drama of a volcanic eruption six million years ago, the book shows how plants and animals arrive at a new island in the ocean. As time goes by, the island turns from barren rock to a place of lush green. Specific attention is paid to the evolution of creatures and plants that are found only on these islands. Young readers will fully understand why finch beaks grew larger, seagulls got larger eyes, and tortoise shells changed shape. The book ends with Darwin arriving on the shores of one of the islands. This book is a celebration of these islands and the wonders of nature.
Chin’s book offers information that is solid and fascinating packaged with illustrations that capture the details of what is being explained. It makes for a book that is bright and energized and that is clearly nonfiction as well. The story of the birth and life of an island makes for a magnificent tale that readers are sure to respond to.
In his art, Chin brings the reader up close to what is happening on the island. We get to look between the mangrove roots at sharks, watch pelicans feast on fish in the lagoons, and see land iguanas float on logs to reach the island. Even better, as I mentioned earlier, the process of evolution is detailed so that readers can see the gradual but necessary changes that occurred.
This is one incredible nonfiction book that teachers, parents and students will enjoy looking through and learning from. Appropriate for ages 6-8.
Reviewed from library copy.