Leaving Home [Hardcover]

Sneed B. Collard III (Author), Joan Dunning (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2002 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

We all “leave the nest” eventually, and animals do, too. Here we follow different creatures from all sorts of environments as they leave home and venture off to make their own place in the natural world. Some walk (jaguars), some crawl (crabs), some swim (sharks). Some leave as soon as they’re born (salamanders), and others leave after several years (elephants). Albatrosses fly across oceans while hedgehogs walk only a short distance away. And songbirds even come back.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

reschool-Grade 3--This natural-history picture book takes a look at animal maturation. After a pictureless first page stating "Sooner or later, we all leave home," the top of each subsequent page features a large-type simple text telling the many ways animals do this. Watercolor paintings of the animals fill the middle of the pages and along the bottom smaller typeface text gives more detailed information about the creatures, including why and when they depart. Thus, the text along the top may have one word such as "hop," with an illustration depicting a rabbit family while the bottom text tells about rabbit reproduction and the differing ways males and females leave home. Occasional points are stretched to fit the theme; for example, wildebeests don't really leave home, they migrate with their herds. The chambered nautilus hatches, which is not leaving home in the way the other animals in the book do. Dunning's large, striking watercolors show each creature in its habitat in a manner that doesn't aim for photographic realism yet manages to include just enough detail to be informative as well. To underscore the theme, most of the animals are pictured breaking through into the pastel border that frames each illustration. This handsome book works both as a concept picture book ideal for a storytime and as an informational source.
Louise L. Sherman, formerly at Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 4-8. Ideally, a parent or teacher would read this generously illustrated science book aloud twice: once for the brief, large-print text that runs, phrase by phrase, along the tops of the pages, and again for the more detailed paragraphs that appear below the pictures. Beginning "Sooner or later, we all leave home," the book explores how different animals accomplish this journey (walking, crawling, flying, swimming, floating on the wind), whether they know where they're going; whether they travel alone or with others, going near or far. In a series of richly colored watercolor paintings, Dunning portrays a wide array of species inhabiting a variety of habitats. Occasionally children might wish for a closer view of the animal under discussion, such as the coral larvae described as looking like space aliens, but most of the lively paintings are well designed to display the traits mentioned. Collard explores the concept imaginatively, writing with admirable simplicity in the short text, introducing children to more complex thoughts and vocabulary in the longer one. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (March 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618114548
• ISBN-13: 978-0618114542
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,715,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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