Wendy Perkins

This book gives a lot of information about how animals create homes. It starts by talking about how beavers build their homes. It goes on to talk about how all animals need a space that is a home to keep them safe and somewhat comfortable. Then it talks about how animals can put in a lot of work to build their home just the right way. Some animals work together to create a home environment. I like this book because it gives lots of examples of animals creating their homes. There are beavers, foxes, birds, polar bears, and more. I would use this book to help compare animals to humans. It shows that even some animals need homes like us to survive.… (mais)

In my opinion this is a great book. The first reason I liked this book was because of the engaging writing. The book is nonfiction so all of the evidence throughout is factual, and quite interesting. "A baby elephant is called a calf. It grows inside its mother's body for 22 months." To me this fact was crazy, as a mother elephant is pregnant for almost two whole years! The second reason I liked this book, similarly to the engaging writing, was the author's use of clear language. "The calf starts to grow tusks between the ages of six months to one year. The calf can't use its small tusks to defend itself. Other elephants in the herd protect it from lions and other danger." From this quote you can grasp that the tusks are growing however the calf still needs protection. A great example of the clear language used throughout. The last reason I liked this book was because of the illustrations. The illustrations were not hand drawn but instead taken. The illustrations throughout the book were real photographs of elephants, which not only fit the style of the written text, but also fit to the factual mood of the story. All in all I feel that the 'big idea' of this book was to teach children factual information about elephants lives and life cycle. The book was made more for knowledge than entertainment.… (mais)