“Amazing Bats” [Lucky] Book # 13 In the “Eyewitness Junior” Series!
Written: Feb 18 '05 (Updated Feb 18 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Stellar photographs, tons of bat types, easy for kids to read.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Looking to learn about bats? This is a great pick for the four to six year old crowd!
|
|
|
| Freak369's Full Review: Amazing Bats |
I’ve always loved bats; from the time I was a teenager on these little winged creatures captivated my imagination. Maybe it was my love of the story of Dracula or one too many late night horror movies but I always had an attraction to them. When my children were younger we built bat roosts [a house for bats] and didn’t have much luck getting them to move in. When we moved to San Diego we had better luck; the bat houses we made [thanks to the plans that were available at the BatCon Online Store] were packed to the brim with these little flying creatures and I was in my glory! Now that Annabelle is showing a lot of interest in learning about animals I started to pick up books in the Eyewitness Junior series from Dorling Kindersley. Since the boys had such a great time with the Eyewitness Book, Eye Wonder and DK Reader series I figured that these would be just as educational and interesting.
Eyewitness Junior Amazing Bats
One of the best things about this series is that the information is presented in short sections with an illustration or a photograph near it. For younger kids this type of format allows them to look around the page and pick out what interests them and doesn’t overwhelm them with a full paragraph of text. In the eleven chapters of this book kids are exposed to different types of bats, what they eat, how they have babies, enemies, the structure of the colony and where the live. There are both standard and cartoon type illustrations in the book so kids are sure to get a chuckle when they see a bat laying out on the beach catching some rays or landing on a boat wearing a parachute. It’s these types of things that really embed the information into a childs brain and allows them to retain it and build upon it. There’s enough information to satisfy basic questions about bats but it definitely leaves room for them to do their own research or ask for more specific books about bats.
One of the best sections [in my opinion] is that of the vampire bat. Most of the time people think of these as monsters that are just waiting to swoop down, rip open some poor innocent create and drain them of every drop of blood. In reality they only drink about an egg-cupful {about 20ml} at a time but it’s they way they rip through the skin that makes it looks like a huge gash. Another cool thing about the book is the way they throw in the odd pieces of information; in this section they talk about people from Trinidad and how they think a bat bite is really the work of a “jumbie” [literally ‘blood sucking spirit’], but that’s not the best part. The rest of the legend is that by day the jumbies are actually old women. This is a good representation of what you get in each section; a nice mix of facts, obscure tidbits, solid information and photos and drawings to explain what is being discussed.
Another great section is about the bat colony. It shows you how they live together, how young female bats learn good parenting skills from older females, how the colony changes in hot or cold weather and how babies are cared for. This is a great lead in for the section on migration and hibernation [pages 18 -19] as well as ‘the nursery’’ [pages 16 㪩]. What exactly does a bat eat? Well, it all depends on the type of bat! Some forage on insects while others prefer blood. Six or seven different types of bats are shown with what they love to munch on and as much as I hate to admit it, I never knew that the fringe-lipped bat ate frogs. Moreover, I never even knew that the bullfrog bat even existed let alone that it had the ability to scoop fish out of the water with it’s feet. And they say this book is for kids …. ha!
The Eyewitness Junior Series
The whole series is “amazing” and a great way to get kids to do a little extra reading as well as providing them with awesome material, great photographs and fuels their imagination so they’ll want to learn more. The “Amazing” series has books about mammals, reptiles, flying machines, animal babies, birds and cars. A bulk of the series is on animals but who knows what they will add to it in the future.
The Bottom Line
If you decide to check out this book, there are a few others in the series that may interest your child. Mammals, Birds of Prey and Insects are great picks for kids that are interested in reading about wildlife in all its shapes and forms. The information in this book is top notch but it’s on a level that most kids will be able to identify with and ultimately absorb and build upon. You can find these books for about five or six dollars but before you invest in the series, stop by your local library and leaf through them to see if they are something that your child will make use of. If you’ve ever read or seen any other books from Doling Kindersley and you liked the way they were put together then this will be a series that you and your child will love reading together.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Other great books for young readers …
Secret at Dolphin Bay – A Lego Reader Book
Getting to Grips With Grammar
Preschool & Kindergarten Skills
The Hallo-Wiener
Mystery Mission: Disney's Atlantis the Lost Empire
How A Plant Grows
Dorling Kindersley Eye Wonder “Space”
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.