Australian Animals - Hardcover

Arnold, Caroline

3.87

15 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688167667 ISBN 13: 9780688167660

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

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The continent of Australia is home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife, and this captivating book highlights many of them.

Tasmanian devils, koalas, and echidnas make their homes in leafy forests and woodlands. Other animals, such as kangaroos and wombats, inhabit dry grasslands. Still more species, like the bilbies, live in the hot desert, while along the coast fairy penguins parade to their burrows in the sand.

Through award-winning author Caroline Arnold's clearly written text, young readers will discover how each animal--from dingo to glider, quoll to platypus--is able to adapt to its own special environment in the wild.

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About the Author:

African Animals is Caroline Arnold's one hundredth book for children. She writes both fiction and nonfiction on a variety of subjects, including animals, fossils, and sports. In 1994 she was presented with an award from the Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People for her outstanding body of work. She also teaches part-time in the Writers' Program at UCLA Extension. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Arthur, a neurobiologist at UCLA. They have two children, Jennifer and Matthew.

In Her Own Words...

"I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and, until I was ten, lived in a settlement house where my parents worked as social workers. My summers, however, were spent at a small camp in northern Wisconsin, and it was there that I developed my love of animals and the outdoors. I delighted in catching sight of a deer leaping through the underbrush or a porcupine scrambling up a pine tree.

"One of the best things about writing animal books today is that I am able to spend a great deal of time in zoos and wildlife parks, watching how animals behave. I also try to observe the animals I write about in their natural habitats. I saw most of the species in African Animals when I spent four months in East Africa.

"Writing allows me to read many books. I was always an avid reader; as a child, I once embarked on a project with my best friend to read all the books in the local branch of our public library. I studied art and English at Grinnell College in Iowa and later received my M.A. in art from the University of Iowa.

"When my children were young, I thought I would use my art training to illustrate books for them. I soon realized, however, that I needed stories to illustrate, so I began to write. Both artists and writers must develop a keen sense of observation; they must notice what things look like and how they work. My goal in each of my books is to provide a close-up view of my subject, and I do that by focusing on details.

"I no longer draw. Today, most of my books are illustrated with photographs. I have learned to appreciate the difficulty of getting just the right photo. You can't tell an elephant, "Just turn this way a little more, please."

"I am amazed by the enormous diversity in the natural world and fascinated by the ways in which every creature is adapted to survive. My hope is that if kids fall in love with the animals in my books, as I do when I write about them, they will be concerned for the animals' future and want to do what they can to protect the animals and the places where they live."

From Kirkus Reviews:

Seventeen unusual animals from Australia are introduced with a brief text and a handsome, full-color, close-up photograph. Like Arnold's other titles, African Animals and South American Animals, this one arranges animals by habitat, focusing on animals of the forest, grasslands, desert, and coast. A map in each section shows where each habitat occurs on the continent. Some very odd creatures are presented, including koalas, possums, gliders, quolls, Tasmanian devils, platypuses, echidnas, kangaroos, wombats, dingoes, snakes, bilbies, and penguins. Children will relish the glossy, full-color photographs, and the text will provide a tantalizing introduction, but young researchers will need to look elsewhere for detailed information. No sources are given. The author does not indicate the size of most animals, and the "rabbit-sized" bilbies and the wombat are shown larger that the six-foot, gray kangaroo. Since no scientific names are given, the reader may search unsuccessfully for the thorny devil or quoll. And the popular kookaburra appears in a photograph but nowhere in the text. Handsome for browsing, but limited for school assignments and research. (Nonfiction. 7-9) -- Copyright � 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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