Giraffes

Gr 4-6 Enticing readers with clear color pictures of the animals in the wild, Hanel and Helget begin with exciting action scenes and then introduce subspecies, physical features, diet, threatened habitats, and, in "Giraffes", scientists' ideas about the creature's evolution (the information in these last two sections is particularly strong). The color photographs are attractive, but are not always near the relevant text and fail to expand its content. Each book includes a folktale ("How the Tiger Got Its Stripes" in "Tigers" and "Why the Giraffe Cannot Speak" in "Giraffes"), and "Tigers" reproduces "Mowgli's Song" from Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book". Additional purchases."Nancy Call, Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Aptos, CA" Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.