Customer Reviews

Crinkleroot's 25 Mammals Every Child Should Know

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This is one of several in the "Crickleroot" series by Jim Arnosky who is an extremely talented naturalist in his own right, and in addition a very talented artist.

Now before I start my brief review, I note that this work has been designated for the 4-8 age groups. I personally feel this is quite off the mark and that this work, and a couple of other in this series, should hold a 2 to 4 year old designation.

This is an ideal work to use in introducing the very young reader to animals she or he will be encountering in their reading for years to come. The author has given us a very nice mix of both wild creatures and domesticated. Each of the creatures featured is common enough, but only common if you have seen them before. This little work is most definitely an entry level work.

The only text involved is the name of the animal being illustrated. These names are printed in a large bold font. I note that there has been some whining by a few of the professional journals that the author did not include technical details in his text, which is true, but that was not the intention of the author nor the reason for the books publication. This is a "get acquainted" book and it is a perfect lead in for works that are more detailed.

The quality of the illustrations is excellent...there is no mistaking a raccoon for a skunk, yet the author has been wise enough to place them on the same page as they are both small furry creatures. He has done the same with animals such as the fox and the wolf.

There is a very nice lead in for the adult reader to read to the child explaining just what a mammal is and how they, like us, are much the same.

This is an excellent getting started work and an absolute delight for children who enjoy looking at pictures of animals.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

We got this book out of the library for my animal-crazy toddler daughter (common refrain = "More animal book!!!"). I really like the fact that there are only one or two animals per page, and - more importantly - that fairly similar animals are often in the same spread. For instance, the fox is next to the wolf; both look fairly similar to the inexperienced child, but the fox is red and slightly smaller than its larger grey cousin. Please note that there is extremely little text outside of Crinkleroot's introduction. Most pages just have a detailed illustration and the associated name of the labeled critter. This layout is perfect for my kid right now. However, if you have an older child, you may want something with wordier descriptions.