Customer Reviews

An Octopus Is Amazing (Let's Read-And-Find-Out Science)

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

 

 

Lauber's _An Octopus is Amazing_ is a decent introductory book on the topic, probably best suited to children aged 4-8. There are no photographs. The book is illustrated on each page with color drawings. The drawing on the book cover is indicative of the quality of the drawings throughout. It's a bit cartoonish.

There is little organization to the subject matter. Instead, the author just presents one (probably "amazing") fact after another, such as: octopuses change color, octopuses can lay 200,000 eggs, etc.

I think most children, if given the opportunity to pick another book on the subject, might not choose this one, simply because there are no color photographs. Still, it's a decent guide to the subject for young readers and the even younger read-to children. The amazing facts in this book just might prompt them to seek out other octopus books. That wouldn't be so very amazing.

I checked this book out for my 4 year old (and 2 year old twins) since our booklist recommended it for studying the letter "o". We thought it was interesting and fabulous. We enjoyed the illustrations and the facts. We happened to have also checked out an octopus puppet with which we made up our own stories based on the facts we learned from the book. I found it interesting enough that I guess I hadn't realized that there wasn't a plot. I guess fact is better than fiction!

I liked this book because I learned alot of facts. The pictures were really cool and I liked learning how they disguise themselves and how the mother octopus lays here eggs near her den where she can watch them. It is sad because she dies after the babies hatch. I recommmend this book for all ages.

We read this story as part of an "O-o-octopus" unit for our homeschool kindergarten. My 5 year old daughter enjoyed the illustrations and was able to remember many of the octopus facts from the story. We like non-fiction (especially biology-based) so this story was a big hit.