Atlas of Animal Adventures: A Collection of Nature's Most Unmissable Events, Epic Migrations and Extraordinary Behaviours (Atlas of)

Gr 2-5--This oversize volume on some of the earth's most intriguing creatures is divided into sections that represent the seven continents, and made up of richly illustrated landscapes populated with several different types of animals. In each scene, one species is highlighted with a paragraph or two of informational text, along with insets that indicate where the animal lives and some of its physical characteristics. Additional snippets of facts are found throughout the illustrations, giving further fascinating information about the featured species and some of the other creatures pictured. From the cover to the endpapers to each individual landscape, this title is visually arresting, offering lush colors and incredible detail. Although the animals are portrayed with realistic body shapes and colors, they have friendly, almost cartoonlike expressions on their faces. In most spreads, a small number of the animals have been anthropomorphized (using fishing poles, wearing hats), which, along with the conversational tone of the text, creates a fun, lighthearted mood--even when dealing with topics such as hunting and survival. VERDICT Purchase where animal are popular, and hand to curious students who love to pore over detailed illustrations.--Sarah Reid, Four County Library System, NY

Williams and Hawkins focus on 31 noteworthy animal behaviors in this follow-up to Atlas of Adventures (2015). In sections divided by continent, expansive spreads that evoke the look of travel postcards explore each event in depth: fruit bats in Zambia's Kasanka National Park crowd onto trees to devour ripe fruit, male marine iguanas turn green and red during breeding season in the Galapagos, and Siberian tiger mothers teach their cubs how to hunt, among others. The text, including small sidebars and caption-style statements, emphasizes scientific details and trivia for readers to file away ("The narwhal can dive almost 6,000 feet deep to feed on halibut"), but Letherland isn't afraid to have fun in her artwork, showing a puffin fishing with a rod and reel, an orangutan wielding a magnifying glass, and a bowerbird tidying up the forest floor with a rake. Ages 6-9. (Sept.)