Extreme Animals Series: Deadliest!, Speediest!, Stinkiest!, & Trickiest! by Steve Jenkins, 40pp, RL 2

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If you aren't familiar with the fantastic, engaging non-fiction picture books of Steve Jenkins, you need to be. Over and over, and often collaborating with his wife, Robin Page, Jenkins takes a unique perspective on the natural world, grouping and presenting animals in ways that are endlessly fascinating for young and old alike. Add to this his cut-and-torn-paper collage style illustrations that jump off the white pages and you are in non-fiction heaven. With the new Extreme Animals series, Jenkins delivers facts in a new, emerging reader friendly format that I love!



Grouping animals by speed, stink, tricks and danger, Jenkins begins each book with an introduction that frames the focus of each book. A paragraph of text about each animal is paired with smaller factoids and a world map that shows the region where each animal's habitat exists as well as a comparison to give readers an idea of the size of each animal. A visually superb table of contents shows readers a small version of each animal, page number where it can be found, along with their trait (tricky, deadly, stinky, speedy) and the name of each animal. Back matter includes a closing summary that is a visually stunning (and varied in each book) graph, chart or list that groups the featured animals, giving readers a new look at their curious (or dangerous or smelly) qualities.

Amazing! Engaging! Fascinating! Spectacular! Jenkins, once again, finds a way to grab readers and keep them reading. A must!
Source: Review Copies


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