Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Who Lives Here? Forest Animals


Hodge, Deborah. 2009. (February 2009). Who Lives Here? Forest Animals. Illustrated by Pat Stephens. Kids Can Press.

I like this one I do. It's simple. It's straightforward. It's informative. It gives just enough information for young readers. Not too overwhelming, but not too babyish either. After first defining what a forest is--the first two-page spread--the book covers a variety of animals that live in the forest: black bear, chickadee, lynx, wood frog, woodland caribou, wolverine, loon, snowshoe hare, and wolf. Each two-page spread covers an animal--we learn about five facts per animal.

The illustrations. I love the illustrations by Pat Stephens. They're so detailed, so realistic. They just charmed me. I was expecting to say that nature books should always, always, without exception be illustrated by photographs. (That's just a little pet peeve of mine.) But now, after seeing her work, I know that rules were meant to be broken now and then.

This one is definitely recommended for young animal lovers everywhere!

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

Ooh, chickadees. I'm sold right there.

Another very realistic - and amazing - nature artist, is Cathryn Sill. She has a whole series of books for very young children - About Mammals, Rodents, Habitats, Penguins, etc. My favorite is About Birds. The artwork is stunning!