Customer Reviews

Squirrels

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

 

 

It doesn't happen often, but on rare occassions I read a book to my preschoolers and I learn something from it. Such was the case with SQUIRRELS. After reading this delightul book to my students, I learned that squirrels can use their tails as parachutes when jumping from trees and that they also use their tails as sails when on rare occassions, they go swimming. The book not only tells the good things about squirrels, but the bad as well; something that is becoming a rarity in our ecological/politically correct landscape. The illustrations in the book are full of warmth and vigor and soothing colors. This is a great book introducing young children to the curious animal called the squirrel.

I have a few different thoughts about this book, so I'm gonna just make a numbered list:

1. The squirrels in this book are universally red squirrels - which are native to Europe and which are endangered in England due to the ill-advised introduction of American gray squirrels there.

This may be great (if you're British), meh (if you just don't care), or unfortunate (if you were planning to use this book in a unit on squirrels as a teacher in the US). At the very least, if you're American, you'll want to tell your kids that the squirrels in the book don't live here at all. (I didn't take off or add any stars for this.)

2. The writing is a bit formal and "factual", and it might be a little long for a younger child, one who isn't school-aged yet.

In addition, it's a bit old-fashioned. It was printed in 1974, but I guess the author had never heard of gender-neutral language because all sentences run along the lines of "when a squirrel swims, as he does sometimes, he can use his tail as a sail". A more recent book would probably say "When squirrels swim, as they do sometimes...."

This writing style is awkward to me, but it's not wrong or anything like that, it's just old-fashioned. (I didn't take off any stars for this either.)

3. And the artwork is beautiful. I love it, I adore it, I think the artwork is well worth the purchase price. I may have limited use for this book, but I don't care, I love the art. So this book stays at a solid four stars (my standard rating), but I'm tempted to nudge it up for the artwork. Beautiful!

Edit: After some furious googling, I've discovered that we actually have red squirrels in the Americas as well. Wow! But I'm still going to give this book away to a friend who may get more use out of it, as we don't have any in NYC.