Earlier this year my son read and thoroughly enjoyed the Sharks animal chapter book so I bought him the dolphin one as well. This is now our fourth animal planet chapter book and we have enjoyed every one and are actually feeling a bit sad that there are not more of them (just a horse one that my son is not interested in). I think they are brilliant early chapter book for kids who prefer reading non-fiction books.
The book has 11 chapters and is 107 pages long but it has lots of photographs and the font is a bit bigger than normal so we thought it ended up being an easy length.
It starts with a labelled photograph of the body of a dolphin.
Then it goes onto what makes a dolphin a dolphin – i.e. warm blooded, lungs which means it come to the surface to breath, the melons on their forehead that they use for echolocation etc.
Onto Pod life and their family bonds and their hunting habits – we found this chapter very interesting as it linked into some of the documentaries we have been watching lately.
After that it was moving about, dolphin superpowers and brainpower – all of which was very informative and I liked that they explained how they use their different fins for different reasons.
Ocean buddies (really where dolphins are found) and river rovers – all about River dolphins which are probably the least well-known – we liked that they pointed out how the river dolphins have adapted and are different to the sea-living dolphins.
Extreme dolphins – always interesting to read about the more unusual cousins and probably one of my son’s favourite chapters – Orca’s and others. Yes Orcas are actually classified as a dolphin. He really liked the comparison between toothed whales and baleen whales that was included.
And then the last three chapters are dolphin do-gooders (when dolphins have helped people), ancient mariners (dolphins included in mythology) and saving dolphins (really what threatens dolphins and how we can help).
I feel like they have managed to include a lot of information into this little book and although it is brimming with informative facts it is written in an easy style with lots of pictures that really does make it perfect for animal-mad kids who are progressing onto chapter books.
I bought our Dolphin Animal planet chapter book from Amazon – Dolphins! (Animal Planet Chapter Books)
The other animal planet chapter books that we have are these ones – sharks and snakes
And if your kids like these books they may also like the Born Free books
I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and love
ofamily learning together 