Customer Reviews

Living Color

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

 

 

A cool natural history book, geared for slightly older kids... Jenkins groups wildly different animals by color -- blue dart frogs along with hyacinth macaws and blue-tailed skinks, etc. -- and explains how each animal uses their distinctive coloring as an adaptive or defensive trait. There's a lot of tooth-and-claw action here: most of this stuff has to do either with killing prey, avoiding being eaten, or finding a mate. There's also a lot of text -- each of the dozens of animals being profiled gets a little explanatory paragraph next to their picture. The artwork is beautiful (if you like this book, you might also want to check out Jenkins' earlier work, "Biggest, Strongest, Fastest") and there's tons of great zoological information. Just the thing for a budding naturalist to pore over for years to come. (ReadThatAgain!)

I first saw this book at the library. I picked it up and was immediately struck. This book is beautiful. Going through various colors, Steve Jenkins, illustrates and describes animals that are that color. The illustrations made me take notice, but within minutes I found myself reading the entries, one after another. The book is a great read and introduced me to many animals that I was unaware of, and it did so in a fun way that most children can appreciate.

Learn about your colors and animals all at once! It is very interesting, amazing facts, and cool facts about animal colors. My 20 month old loves this book.

Wonderful book. Very informative and well written. Kids will love it, adults will too! You'll all learn things you never knew about these animals...

I purchased this book for my sons based on Mr. Jenkins' wonderful artwork and the high-contrast images on the cover -- also looking for a book that featured lesser-known animals (having had enough of the usual zoo creatures in other books), Living Color fit our needs admirably. However, for us the arrangement of animals by color seems monotonous and detracts from full enjoyment of the pictures; a different arrangement by genus or family (grouping all birds together on one spread and highlighting the differences in coloration for the birds' survival in specific habitats, all reptiles together, etc.) would be more exciting and effective. I feel like cutting apart the pages and rearranging the illustrations...v. interesting species info.