Animal habitats Search and find

Gr 2--5--This is a gorgeous illustrated work featuring facts about animal habitats while combining the enthralling aspect of popular search-and-find books like "I Spy." With facts and clear diagrams of animal food chains, the text and graphics complement each other to give a wonderful overview of the surrounding world, as well as the living creatures in it. Each section of the book features a different animal habitat with a description, followed by a detailed food-chain diagram starting with energy from the sun feeding the plant life, all the way to the small animals feeding the predators. The habitats range from coral reefs to the savanna and show a diverse range of wildlife. Three colors are used for each section's artwork, giving it a simple and clean look that fits well with the book's overall tone. Following the food-chain spreads are scenes of the habitats where readers have to find the animals and plants that are now depicted all in one color, providing enough of a challenge to make this a worthy activity book. VERDICT A perfect addition to elementary school nonfiction collections where animals and search-and-find activity books are popular.--Molly Dettmann, Norman North High School, OK

The focus is on food chains in this follow-up to the dazzling Animal Camouflage (2017).Once again Dennis' precise, realistic cut-paper illustrations command attention. Labeled silhouettes of individual plants and animals are color coded to show their predator-prey relationships within seven marine or terrestrial habitats; these are followed by intricate, full-page monochrome scenes in which the flora and fauna are artfully incorporated, to be picked out by the sharp of eye. The accompanying observations and infographics offer a light wash of general observations, questions ("Which creature is the apex predator?"), and repetitive instructions to seek producers and consumers in each large picture. Hutchinson properly develops the notion of "web" along with "chain" from the outset. Unfortunately, he places the selected wildlife into "trophic levels" without clearly defining the term, inconsistently identifies some figures by name but others only by function ("insect-eating bird" for example), and includes "decomposers" only in the "Woodland" food chain. But there's room for delight: For an array of woodland creatures that includes an earthworm, the author asks which can climb treesand even confirmed young naturalists may be astonished at the (correct) answer at the end: "All of them!"The art is a bigger draw than the text, but both reward close looks. (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.