Animal Eyes

Gr 1—4—Children who pick up this appealing book will instantly have their curiosity piqued. Each spread features a different animal and includes a full-color photo of it, close-ups of its eyes, and a few paragraphs of text. "Test It Out" experiments using easily accessible materials such as colored pencils add a participatory element to the book. Colorful backgrounds nicely complement the many close-up photographs and text boxes, while fascinating facts like how frogs' eyes actually retract into their skull to push food into their stomachs will amaze youngsters. Other basic facts about each of the featured animals relate to their vision and capabilities, as seen in the section on chameleons: "An amazing tongue would not do a chameleon any good, though, if it didn't have great vision to see the fast-moving insects it wants to catch." A concluding "Guess Who?" features 12 animal-eye close-ups to identify. Answers are provided. An attractive, informative title.—Cathie Bashaw Morton, Millbrook Central School District, NY