Someone once told me that kids can never have enough books. And although I agree with that, when I look at our collection of books, we really do have a lot of animal books, a LOT. So when my daughter asked for yet another animal book for Christmas I was a bit reluctant. But she asked for a specific one – the DK Knowledge Encyclopedia Animals and she really wanted this one because she already has the Human Body version of the series (which is amazing) and we recently borrowed the Dinosaur version from the library which was also amazing so she was convinced the animal book in this series was very much required reading.
What is it about this series that my kids love? I think it is the visual feeling of these books. The photographs are incredible and some of the detail, wow the detail – like the little hairs on a mosquito, the complex eyes, the wings of the dragonfly. They really are stunning pictures and they make every creature seem fascinating (even the ones I don’t actually like).
My kids also like the way the details are explained and depicted with diagrams.
There is a lot of detail included in this book but it is done in a visual format and it is this visual format that really wins over both of my kids and me (yes I will admit that even though we had a ridiculous number of animal books in our house this is a stunning book and I can understand why my daughter wanted it as one of her Christmas presents).
The entire book just seems like you are stepping into a photographic wonderland.
My daughter tends to read sections at a time whereas my son has actually gone from page 1 and is slowly working his way through page by page. Both methods work with this book, you can start at the beginning or you can just find the sections that you want.
For those who want details. The books starts with some introduction pages like what is an animal, evolution, the animal kingdom and then it splits into 6 sections.
- Invertebrates
- Fish
- Amphibians
- Reptiles
- Birds
- Mammals
And after the Mammals section there are a few pages on Animal Science – habitats, food webs and migration.
This book normally sells for around £18.99 and after seeing how much my kids have read and reread it just since Christmas it has already been worth it. We bought our copy from Amazon – Knowledge Encyclopedia Animal!: The Animal Kingdom as you’ve Never Seen it Before
Admin Bit – 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 