Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-Despite its picture book appearance, this French translation packs in plenty of facts related to nocturnal animals. Each spread features a central illustration with four to six creatures, which are further explored in text on the left- and right-hand sides of the pages. Boxes marked with a crescent moon symbol pose questions that readers can answer by examining the glow-in-the-dark portions of the image: "What is the bobcat so interested in observing?" Kids will need to move back and forth between light and dark spaces to read and answer the questions and may find the illuminated portions unclear. (Answers are found in the back of the book.) Animals are organized by type of habitat: forest, country road, desert, etc. Their native continents are also acknowledged. Species vary from common toads and house cats to the lesser-known American pine marten and greater mastiff bat. Notable tidbits include the name for the hornlike feathery tufts on an owl's head, plumicorn. And readers are unlikely to know that Eastern newts progress from tadpoles to the poisonous "red eft" stage before fully maturing. Complex vocabulary words such as bioluminescence are italicized and well defined in context rather than in a glossary. There is a table of contents but no index for locating specific animals. VERDICT A fascinating examination of nocturnal animals with a rather disappointing glow-in-the-dark hook. Consider for large collections seeking animal materials.-Maria O'Toole, Carroll Manor Elementary School, Adamstown, MD © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
All around the world, while humans sleep, there are animals active at night.After an opening spread introducing the idea of nocturnal animals and a few of their adaptations, this unusual album offers a simulation of looking through a night-vision scope into different environments: woodland, country road, urban neighborhood, beach, desert, and so forth. Each illustration (rounded, as if viewed through a scope, with top and bottom edges bleeding off the page) fills three-quarters of the spread; the text, white on black, sits alongside. Five animals from the scene are identified in short paragraphs, and there's a question (answers in the back). Some creatures or parts of creatures have been highlighted with phosphorescent paint, visible in darkness for a short while if the page has been held under a lamp for a few minutes. These illustrations invite repeated exploration; the glow-in-the-dark effect advertised on the cover is intriguing, but each page must be exposed separately, and the glow is not long-lasting. Children may need instruction beyond the book's "turn off the lights to see what glows in the dark." For the U.S. version of this French import, some European species have been replaced by more-familiar North American ones (the barred owl for the tawny owl, for example), and the text has been recast to include North American details. This makes these scenes a curious conglomeration but no less interesting for it. Attention-grabbing if not truly glowing. (Informational picture book. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.