Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library) [Hardcover]

Tish Rabe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1998 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Cat in the Hat's Learning Library

Bee hummingbirds, ostriches, flycatchers, chickadees, and bald eagles! Dick and Sally find themselves on a bird-watching tour led by the Cat in the Hat. After a quick lesson on just exactly what a bird is, they go motoring around the world to observe our fine feathered friends in their natural habitats. Time flies, and soon it's late, but the Cat saves the day by shifting his vehicle into Fine Feather All-Weather Flying Machine mode and winging Dick and Sally back home.  

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-These books aim to introduce beginning readers to basic concepts in an entertaining manner. The author employs familiar characters from Dr. Seuss's "Cat in the Hat" titles to present information showing the diverse range of birds and mammals. The manic parade of rhyming facts, however, is confusing and contrived. Fine Feathered Friends is annoyingly superficial. In Is a Camel a Mammal?, a number of examples prove that mammals come in all sizes, live in many types of environments, and have various eating habits. Two basic facts, however, are mentioned in the glossary but not in the text: that mammal babies feed on their mothers' milk, and that they have backbones. In both books, the cartoon illustrations fail to distinguish among the many creatures. Series such as "Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science" (HarperCollins), "Read and Wonder" (Candlewick), and Jim Arnosky's "Crinkleroot" books (S & S) are all better choices.
Marilyn Taniguchi, Santa Monica Public Library, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"There is a big gap between 'concept' books written for preschoolers and nonfiction that requires fluent reading skills. The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library books introduce beginning readers to important basic concepts about the natural world. They provide the critical foundations upon which complex facts and ideas can eventually be build. In addition, The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library shows young readers that books can be entertaining and educational at the same time. This is a wonderful series!"
-- Barbara Kiefer, Associate Professor, Reading and Literature
Teachers College, Columbia University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (October 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679883622
• ISBN-13: 978-0679883623
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 0.4 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning to love nature, June 10, 2000

By 

Tina V (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library) (Hardcover)

This book engaged my 4 year old daughter from the moment she saw the cover. The combination of familiar characters (The Cat in the Hat, Sally) and silly Seuss-like rhymes and drawings is a wonderful vehicle for teaching preschoolers simple biology concepts. My daughter laughed while learning about the biggest, smallest, and quirkiest members of the bird family. This book is part of a series that spans birds, fish, mammals, insects, and dinosaurs. As a group, the series is a great tool to teach children about groupings in nature (i.e., what do mammals, insects, birds have in common?, how do they differ?). Even adults can learn a fact or two while reading to the little ones!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Feathered Friends, November 7, 2003

By 

...Loggie... "Loggie-log-log-log" (I live on the earth, in the western hemisphere, in North America, in the country of the United States of America, in Illinois in the town of Champaign) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library) (Hardcover)

In this book the cat in the hat comes back again to visit Dick and Sally, but this time he doesn't create a mess. This time he has come to teach them all about birds. To start off with he talks about birds in general, how they have feathers and a tail and hatch out of eggs. Then he, Thing 1, and Thing 2 take Sally and Dick to different places to introduce them to several different types of birds, such as the spoonbill, emperor penguin, bald eagle, ostrich and more. The cat then leads them all into his Fine Feather, All-Weather Flying Machine, getting them home just in time so that their mother doesn't notice they were gone. This book is very informative, and is written in rhyme. The pictures are bright, bold and colorful. Somehow though, this book fails to capture my attention and hold it, making it not one of the best books I've read by this author.

Loggie-log-log-log

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, educational book, January 12, 2012

By 

Ohio Jennifer (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library) (Hardcover)

We bought this book to go along with a bird feeder (Perky-Pet 348 Window Wild Bird Feeder) for our three year old daughter. Originally I was looking at this book (Birds which I'm sure is also a wonderful book but we already have one other of the Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That books (Clam-I-Am!: All About the Beach (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)) and our daughter has really enjoyed that one so I took a chance on Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds. It's definitely interesting and educational and while it covers way more types of birds than we'll ever see at our little bird feeder, my only complaint is that the rhyme scheme seems a little off in some places. It just doesn't quite flow off the tongue like some of the other books. Other than that though, it's still a good book and our daughter seems to like it which is the important part. Now if we could only get some birds to use our feeder...