AmySea

Oh, darn it! I meant to read this one to my nephew, but it got mixed into my pile of books to return, so he didn't hear it! BAH! No insight into this book from a child's point of view in this review, I guess. Sorry!

I read An Octopus is Amazing, however, and I thought the story was well done. There were a lot of facts in here, a great many things that I didn't know, and the text was a good length. I believe that it was short enough that it may have kept the attention of my pre-school aged nephew (maybe), but I also think that it was dense enough with facts that younger elementary school aged kids could use this for a report about this creature.

While the text was good, I really thought the illustrations left quite a bit to be desired. They weren't bad, they just weren't that great, and they really needed to be. So many children's books have fantastic illustrations, and when you have text that is dense and full of information, I think you run the risk of losing the attention of the child. Good, rich text, accompanied by fantastic illustrations like in Desert Giant, or The Wolves Are Back can really help to hook a child and keep that little person engaged.

In the end, in some ways I wish I hadn't accidentally returned this to the library so my nephew could have heard it. On the other hand, I betcha I can find a better octopus book out there for him.