April 1, 2025
Gr 2-4-This series combines basic animal facts along with instructions for decoding words and ideas. Opening pages offer reading comprehension tips related to spelling, vocabulary, and critical thinking. Subsequent spreads provide a bit of animal information along with a photo. Four of the eight spreads also highlight those comprehension topics. A half-page "Decode-It" section, for example, breaks down challenging spelling words like "reproduction" into syllables with pronunciation tips. "Build Vocabulary" sections define rare words and the "Make Connections" feature includes a new fact and a question for the reader. The switch from animal information to comprehension exercises doesn't flow smoothly, and is not helped by the fairly unexciting animal data. Cats and owls are the only named creatures in Animal Night Vision, for example, and half of Spewing Animals relates to humans vomiting. Photos are mostly serviceable but unexciting. VERDICT A mixture of nonfiction and textual decoding with limited child appeal.
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