Animal Fact File: Head-To-Tail Profiles of Over 90 Mammals [Hardcover]

Tony Hare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999 | Age Level: 10 and up

Animal Factfile is a visual guide to the most important and most

interesting anatomical peculiarities of the world's most irresistible animals.

This collection gives children a rare opportunity to explore such animal-lover's delights as a gorilla's footprint, a dolphin's blowhole, a hippo's ears, or the bottom

of an elephant's foot at a glance.

Generous two-page spreads exhibit each mammal's physiology right down to the bone, with x-ray views of their skeletons and skull structure. Side-by-side comparisons pinpoint characteristics that distinguish each mammal from similar species, as well as their scale in relation to humans. Each full-color spread also features a fact file providing biological classification, size, coloration, and more.

For ages 10 and up.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Imagine an owner's manual for an automobile or a washing machine, its pages studded with exploded diagrams of pistons and ducts. Transfer this model to the animal kingdom, and you have this unusual, richly descriptive catalog of animals from aardvark to wombat, ranging from the common (the hedgehog, opossum, and rat) to the exceedingly rare (Przhevalski's horse, the snow leopard). Each of these animals enjoys an oversized, two-page spread that includes several illustrations. For the Tasmanian devil, for example, color diagrams depict the marsupial carnivore's complex dentition, the shape of its paws and claws, and the musculature of its massive lower jaw; for the greater horseshoe bat, the illustrations include portraits of relatives such as the false vampire bat and mouse-tailed bat, along with a complete skeletal chart. Each entry includes notes on natural history, range, and habitat, along with measurements and characteristic features. Budding zoologists will enjoy leafing through these pages, which make for a nice artists' reference and an inviting coffee-table book as well. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-A mix of fascinating information and surprising omissions and contradictions. The clear and sensible format presents an alphabetical guide to mammals from aardvarks to wombats. The full-color illustrations are excellent. Pictures show external and internal views of the animals as a whole and highlight distinctive body parts. Interesting comparison drawings abound; for example, the dromedary nose is compared to that of a bactrian camel. And there is, for every entry, an easy reference chart giving the mammal's classification, size, coloration, and features. Here is where the confusion starts. On page one, the author discusses the orders of mammals and presents a chart that lists the scientific names of typical species. On this page, the elephant is listed as a Macroscelidea and a Proboscidea. On the elephant page, neither of these classifications appears. Its genus is given as Loxodonta and its species is africana. Then, on the last page, another chart shows the elephant as a member of the Proboscidea genus. There is no explanation of what the scientific name is as compared to the genus and species. To add to the confusion, occasionally two animals appear on the same page. For instance, on the aardvark page, the hyrax is featured as well. But there's no chart about the hyrax, no explanation of how it is related to the aardvark (if, indeed, it is), and there is no hyrax entry in the book. Despite these shortcomings, the book provides a lot of easily accessed information in digestible bits.
Randi Hacker, Montgomery Elementary School, VT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Facts on File (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816039216
• ISBN-13: 978-0816039210
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,473,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My son loves it, February 21, 2006

By 

Laurie Roiger "Certified Online ID Specialist" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Fact File (Paperback)

I have a 4-year-old son with autism who absolutely LOVES animals. We renewed this book from the library, and I wanted to buy it because he looks through it SO much. I do agree that sometimes it brings in another animal on the pages, and then doesn't explain the relationship, or other things about the animal that we might want to know. I also wish it would tell us what the animals eat, but that is a personal preference based on my son's desire to know that. But the drawings are nice and large, and there is quite a variation of different animals. He certainly knows more than most 4-year-olds when it comes to animals. And now we know more about animals than most adults do, too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunning visuals!, October 22, 2008

By 

Judy K. Polhemus "Book Collector" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Fact File (Paperback)

Until tonight my library students and I would have voted "Animal Fact File: Head-to-Tail Profiles of More Than 90 Mammals" as the best book in our library. It is certainly among the most checked out books.

So what happened to change my mind tonight? Carolina (my four-year-old niece) and I sat down to read it. First animal--Aardvark. As with each two-page spread in the book, the artwork of the aardvark fills the whole middle half of the two pages. Another illustration shows the aardvark's relative size to one human. Another shows a close-up of its nostrils.

Across the bottom of the two pages is a row of skeleton and specific skeletal body parts. In the right hand column is a list of facts: classification, size, coloration, and features. Oddly, the Hyrax is displayed with the Aardvark with no explanation why it is there.

However, the disappointment for me is major. Carolina asked, "What does it do?" For all the detail of the physical specimen, there is no mention what this animal (or any other animal in the book) eats, hows it behaves, what its home is like, or any other identifying characteristic. I checked the introductory comments. There was no explanation that this was a physical comments only book.

Nevertheless, another good point is the inclusion of animals to stretch animal identification. I have always been amazed by Carolina's ability to identify a wide range of animals. This book challenged her and taught her new names: badger, capybara, dhole, mole, anteater, jackal, hedgehog, lemming, manatee, and meerkat. (She tired of the book by this time, meaning she made it through half of the 90 mammals.)

To reiterate, this is a fantastic book full of fabulous artwork and physical detail and introduces the child to new mammals, but if you really want to know the mammal, you will have to look elsewhere. I do happily give four stars!

1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it is very good book my son had it, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Animal Fact File (Paperback)

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