Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons, by Sara Levine (illustrated by T.S. Spookytooth)

Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons
Author: Sara Levine
Illustrator: T.S. Spookytooth
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group/Millbrook Press
Publication Date: August 1, 2013 
(Canadian Publication Date: October 1, 2013)
View on Amazon.com

Source: NetGalley

As a children's book this is okay. It introduces children to different animals by asking them "What kind of animal would you be if..." with variations such as "if your back legs were much longer than your front" or "if your fingers were as long as your body," etc. Turn the page and find the answer (hare, bird, etc.). It's cute, but I found myself wishing for two things. One, that it was longer or at least had more information (in sidebars or outlined boxes, so it could still be a picture book but would have greater appeal to older children). And second, I wish it were less open-ended. The guessing game format of the book suggests that each page has a right answer that children can figure out from the clues, but the clues are vague enough that they could each have multiple answers. I found that a little frustrating.

Still, the idea is a good one. And how great is it that it's illustrated by someone who goes by the name "T.S. Spookytooth"?



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