Customer Reviews

Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My husband and I saw this book in a large bookstore chain last week and were totally intrigued. It was displayed near the checkout counter and the colorful cover photo of the fierce, unusual mandrill caught our eye.

When I picked up the book, it was HEAVY. Very heavy. It weighs more than my cats! (We're talking about eleven pounds here.)

We flipped through the pages, utterly fascinated by the arresting color photos and intriguing information offered for hundreds of animals. Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish, Invertabrates--they're all here.

Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife introduces readers to the principles of classification and even provides a colorful chart for the classification levels. The book describes Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species and how they apply to all the animals. (Remember 8th grade biology and having to learn all this?!). Throughout the book, mini-charts are extrapolated for each creature so you know their classification at a glance.

For example, tiger classification would be:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: Panthera tigris

In addition to the classification system, the Introduction discusses Habitats such as grasslands, desert, tropical forest, mountains, polar regions, coral reefs, and more.

The colorful photographs are stunning, showing a wide variety of species. For example, you won't find one type of monkey. You'll find many--*with* color pictures and stats.

Designed in an easy-to-read encyclopedic format, extensive data--including unusual facts--are provided for the creatures, including:

*Location (With mini-map)
*Habitat symbols
*Weight
*Social Unit (Mammals only)
*Migration
*Plumage (Birds only)
*Breeding
*Classification key
*Status (Common, Vulnerable, Endangered, etc.)

and much more.

The sheer amount of color photos on these glossy pages--sometimes filling up a page and half's worth of space--were amazing enough. But that this book is presented in an easy-to-understand, engaging style is--perhaps--even *more* amazing!

My husband and I "oohed" and "ahhhed" in the bookstore as we investigated various animals and discovered amazing facts. For example, did you know that giraffes move from a walk directly to a gallop because their long legs and short body make trotting impossible without tripping? That they can reach speeds exceeding 31 mph? That they must splay their legs--and even bend at the knee--when they drink water? Why? Well, their heart pumps blood at an enormous pressure in order to reach their brain when upright. When their head lowers to drink, a series of one-way valves regulate the blood's force and flow to prevent damage to the brain.

Fascinating, no?

We keep this book in the living room so we can pick it up any time just to look at the pictures or learn something my new. Even my son picks it up to browse through, often asking us questions. For example, lemurs feature prominently in the movie Madagascar--as well as the PBS show Zoobamoofoo. My son then asked me to look up lemurs--and was delighted to see all the different kinds!

At 624 pages, Animal - The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife is a great book for those who are curious about animals. It's also a great reference for homeschoolers, especially in terms of biology and earth science. Lastly, if your spiritual path includes shamanism and power animals, this book is a GREAT resource for learning the behaviors and attributes of various creatures--which will help you learn more about the spiritual ramifications of your spirit animal/s.

(P.S. Amazon's price is about $9 cheaper than what we paid at the bookstore. What a great deal for such a hefty, informative book!)

"Animal" is probably THE book to have if you want to have a reference to animal life on earth. Awesomely designed, stunningly photographed, meticulously organized, this book is an absolute treasure house. Visually it's unbelievably gorgeous; the design and organization are inspired; the photographs are breathtaking; it's easy to read and fun to browse through. It's hefty (over 8 pounds)and packed with references to most of the known animal genera on this planet. As beautiful as it is, this is no "coffee table" tome designed for show; "Animal" is an extremely valuable reference that will be used and explored over and over again... And at Amazon.com's price (...) it's the book bargain of the decade. This is one book you'll want to share with your family for generations to come.

(...)If you are an animal lover, or want to use the book as a reference guide, this book will appeal to you. (...) To date I have seen no other book quite like it on any book shelf. Every fact and aspect of animal life is included here and the photographs are absolutely out of this world! Classification, behaviour, habitat and everything you wanted to know about each species in the animal kingdom is contained here and it is quite in-depth. What a wonderful gift this would make for that special animal lover on your list, and it would also make an excellent coffee table book for yourself.

(...) Highly recommended and worth a million stars in rating.

This book is simpy outstanding. Few books can rival the wide scope offered by Animal on a vast range of organisms which include invertebrates, birds, reptiles, mammals, fish, and amphibians. The book is adorned with magnificent color photos of each organism and a compact description that provides adequate amounts of info on the organism. Although some common species are excluded, it more than makes up for this with the amount of species covered. For every common species excluded, I ran across three new species I had never heard of. This book is an extraordinary guide to the vast array of wildlife in the world. There are few books that I have found as informative and enjoyable to read as Animal. It truly is a definitive guide to the world's wildlife and I highly recommend it.

I ordered this book on a whim after Amazon used it as one of the examples of their new feature that lets you look at pages of a book online before ordering it. It arrived today and I really am impressed. It's a large format, boxed, hardcover edition... It weighs a little over eight pounds.

This book is just amazing. DK have been making "pretty" books for a long time that haven't impressed me too much as far as the content goes, but this one shows that they are starting to get very good at it. The book looks quite comprehensive and the pictures are just gorgeous.

I'm probably going to order a few more copies as holiday gifts, since this looks like something that kids would love, and (all together now) it's educational!

(...) It has the most stunning lay-out, the greatest detail (so famously done by the Eyewitness people from Dorling Kindersley) and the most fascinating information! Every page that talks about the creatures has mini maps of the world colored in so you can get the idea where the creatures live. You will be so knocked out as to how much DETAIL this heavy book can supply you! When you open the front of the book there is a neat spread of fish swimming out at you...close the book and the side where all the pages come together make a beautiful rainbow of color. I cannot express how amazing the pictures and photography are and how much information is in this book... The book also comes with a nice, sturdy slipcase made of cardboard with a picture exactly like the cover of the book for the cover of this slipcase. (...) you cannot miss this one!! A+++++++++!!

A beautiful visual book. The photography is captivating to say the least, the text though short is very informative , the layout is something else and very well designed : easy access to general information. Some have objected to the fact that there is no mention of the human species; to those I say that the book's cover does say: The definitive visual guide to the world's WILDLIFE. I do admit that since invertebrates form 97% of all the known animal species,the chapter concerning them was a bit lacking and too short. One may not find enough research material for any specific animal, but nevertheless it is nothing short of stunning, it's the kind of book the whole family will enjoy and every household should have.

This book is unbelievable from cover to cover. It's both a spectacular learning tool and a book that you'll keep forever and always refer to. It's been extremely helpful to me already as I continue through school toward a job working with animals and docenting at the zoo, and it would be equally as helpful to anyone of any age who shares this interest. The pictures are real and breathtakingly beautiful, and the book's organization couldn't be any easier or more perfect. I highly recommend this book as a reference or simply as a good read, because it is just as interesting and helpful either way. Animal is now the most beautiful book I own, and packed with interesting and vital information.

My son got this as a Christmas gift when he was 7. As a homeschooling mother of 3 I love books as gifts, but this one took the cake! My son, who wouldn't read unless he "had" to, took this book in hand every single day. I'm not kidding. He mainly looked at the gorgeous pictures, but slowly and surely he began to digest its contents. He's now 9 and I'd say he still picks up this book at least 3-4 times a week. Everytime an animal is menitoned on Discovery he looks it up, sees its picture, finds out where it lives, and reads the short paragrah about it. He still isn't an avid reader but this book is his all time favorite.

As other reviewers have reported, this is an exceptional, comprehensive introduction to the animal kingdom. The organization according to taxonomy is very helpful, and the taxonomy used is a well-thought-out compromise in this time of terminological controversy and shifting opinion in systematics. The photography is gorgeous, and the text hits the important high points.

The only disappointment is the shoddy binding. As others have mentioned, this is a VERY big book, and it is made all the more weighty by the use of thick glossy paper that makes the graphics shine. Such a book requires a particularly "industrial strength" library binding. Sadly, the book is bound as though it were a coffee table book that need not stand up to much more than an occasional desultory browsing. I've had it in my classroom for less than a year, and the constant use it gets has already worn out the binding. Hence the 4 stars instead of 5.