Duprat, Guillaume. Eye Spy: Wild Ways Animals See the World. What on Earth Books, 10/2018. 36p. $21.99. 978-1-9998028-5-1.
Using flaps over their eyes, this nonfiction book on how animals see contains quite a bit of detail. Divided into sections by type of animal, including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and insects, each animal’s vision is shown using the same scene to demonstrate what colors they can see, if they can focus, and their field of vision.
A foldout at the beginning shows how a human eye works, with explanation in small print captioning each illustration. Then, each animal is shown in a large illustration of the animal’s face; the reader lifts the flap over the eyes to find out how much that animal can see.
This will be especially useful for reports, but it also gets a little monotonous after a while, as the same template is used for each animal showing their field of vision, what colors they can see, and how far. Back matter includes an index, glossary, and list of sources. Since it should be shelved in nonfiction, the flaps are likely to hold up to library use.
Maizels, Jennie. The Great Grammar Book. Illus. by Kate Petty. Candlewick, 2018. [14p.] $24.99. 978-0-7636-9575-0. 
Originally published in Great Britain in 1996, this informational book on the parts of speech will be very useful as well as fun. Nouns, verbs, adjectives each get their own spread, and adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, plurals, punctuation, and possessives each get a page. Each is defined clearly with lots of examples. The brightly colored cartoonish artwork includes many dialogue balloons, small flaps, pull tabs, and popups; all of these elements give more information on each. This is a very successful book on the topic as well as a fun popup book. Teachers will find it especially useful.
McBratney, Sam. Here I Am! A Finger Puppet Book. Illus. by Anita Jeram. Candlewick, 09/2018. [14p.] $12.99. 978-1-5362-0389-9.
In this board book featuring the father and child nutbrown hares from McBratney’s Guess How Much I Love You, they are playing hide and seek. In each spread, father finds the child hiding behind plants, rocks, or other areas of nature. The child is a cloth finger puppet attached to the book and peeks out from die-cut holes in each page. Overall, this is unlikely to hold up to library use and is better for home purchasing.
Penny Peck, San Jose State University iSchool
Leave a Reply