Customer Reviews

The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia (Kingfisher First Reference)

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

 

 

Before buying this book, I wondered if it covered enough animals to make it worthwhile. It does. Rarely are we disappointed when we reach for this kid-friendly encyclopedia. Some entries cover several similar animals, such as the entry for the Kangaroo and Wallaby.

Each entry contains a nice combination of illustrations/photographs and text. The information is nicely geared toward preschoolers and younger elementary-aged children. So far, it's been able to answer most of the questions of my very inquisitive 3 1/2 year old.

The book contains a very nice table of contents, glossary and index. While finding information on animals, my son has also learned how to use these handy reference tools. However, the book does not contain a map. A map would be a welcome addition since the book often mentions where the animals live. We use a separate map/globe/atlas but it makes the whole process more bulky.

Several of the entries cover animal-related infomation: camoflage, communication, conservation, coral reef, defense, evolution, habitat, migration, and reproduction. There are also separate entries for amphibian, insect, mammal, and reptile.

The book contains some hand-on art and experiments for a few of the entries. The ones we have tried are very age appropriate for my 3 1/2 year old.

We've referred to this book a lot. Judging by the quality of information and the interest my son shows in it, we'll continue to do so for quite some time.

We bought this book after already purchasing the Animal Encyclopedia from DK. If I had it to do over again I would have just purchased the book from DK. The real photos and minimum of two to three page spread on each animal make it so much more informative.

I checked out 4 animal encyclopedias for children. They are all great, but three of them were classified by the kinds/habitat/class. The Kingfisher's animal encyclopedia is organized alphabetically and dedicates one or two pages maximum on one animal. My 4 year old likes it the best. When he wants to look up shark, he goes, 'sh, sh,... letter S!' and he can find it easily. In one page, this book sums up what preschoolers and kindergarteners want to know about the shark. This is truely the best first animal encyclopedia for children.

My nephew, 4 years old, loves this book! He loves "reading" all the pages, and looking at all the pictures. It's tremendously colorful, and interesting even for the adults. I definitely would recommend it for any child with an interest in animals, or for any adult who hopes to foster such an interest.

This book covers a lot of animals, with one page dedicated to each. The pages are pictures with captions, and very little other text describing the animals. Since I picked this book up for homeschooling, I have found I need a lot of other resources (library books and Internet) to get substantial information. But it's a great book for kids to flip through and familiarize themselves with different animals.

My son Jason just loves this book. He chooses an animal fromthe book each night for a bedtime story, where I make up a story aboutthe animal using some of the facts from this book. The pictures are wonderful and full of color. The whole family has learned a lot from this fact filled book.

This book is OK if you are looking for a book that is interesting for kids to read or be read to from. However it is not very compleat in its content or animals offered. I am working on finding an alternitive to this book for a science curriculum.