Cathryn Sill & John Sill (illustrator)
Peachtree Publishers, 2011
This is a book you can enjoy two ways: Just reading it straight through, "as is" sotospeak, or by reading it through and then making use of the expanded text in the back. Let me explain ...
... This is a beautiful book. The illustrations take up an entire page, and are faced by a white page with a simple line or two of easy-to-read text. The 'story' introduces readers to the different kinds of grasslands that are found around the world, and what a grassland is - how it works, the animals found there. The illustrations match the different statements, and are referred to as "Plate 1," "Plate 2," etc, with a caption briefly stating what kind of grassland and animals are pictured. It's simply beautiful. There is no other word that can describe this arrangement.
And then you turn the last page, and there are miniature versions of every plate/illustration in the book with an expanded definition of both the type of grassland and the animals pictured! How cool is that? The book itself gets you interested, and then it offers you a way to satisfy your emerging curiosity without having to track down more resources! Also, there's a glossary of terms. I am a big fan of the practice of having glossaries added to books - maybe because I'm a word nerd, but hey: vocabulary is awesome.
As with At the Sea Floor Cafe, this would be a great book to gently ease young readers into learning, by catching their attention and whetting their appetite.
Giveaway Alert:
Thanks to the generosity of the great folks at Peachtree Publishers, I am delighted to announce that I am going to be giving you the chance to win a copy not only of this book, but of the other three titles I'm reviewing as part of the blog tour also! That's four wonderful new books you could win! Entering is simple: Check back here, and leave a comment on one of the "Fins, Wings, and Other Things" posts - only comments on blog tour posts count, but you can comment on every one (that means you could get 5 entries total!). On April 30th, I will randomly select a winner, and contact you. So please, leave me an email or some way to get in touch with you! Contest only open to the US. Good luck!
For more blog tour fun, check out the next stop: Abby the Librarian
Book provided by publisher for review.
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