Animals on the Inside: A Book of Discovery & Learning

Details the internal structures of insects, spiders, marine invertebrates, fish, amphibians, modern reptiles, birds, mammals, and dinosaurs, and describes how they function

Grade 4-8?A useful exploration of the anatomy of 31 animals, including insects, marine creatures, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and dinosaurs. Clear, colorful cross-section diagrams with explanatory labels along with brief text that provides scientific classification and other facts reveal nature's complex machinery. Some animals are not easily found elsewhere, such as the mole, beaver, stingray, clam, and flea, and there's a good explanation of how the baby kangaroo fits in its mother's pouch. Ted Dewan's Inside the Whale and Other Animals (Doubleday, 1992) offers similar information for this age group with a touch of humor, but features only 21 animals. Jinny Johnson's Skeletons (Reader's Digest, 1994), while eye-catching and dramatic in its presentation, is not as detailed or as broad in scope as Ruiz's book. A welcome addition for reports as well as for browsing.?Kathleen McCabe, East Meadow Public Library,
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

offers vivid perspectives on creatures familiar (giraffe, camel, spider) and less so (sponge, cheetah, chameleon). Graphic illustrations and detailed text tell readers everything they always wanted to know about a frog's pelvic girdle, a bat's flying apparatus, how a jellyfish reproduces, etc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3-6. Children who are researching a favorite animal and want to investigate the anatomical basis of its special identity will find this book very appealing. Not many young readers care whether jellyfish have gonads (they do), but camels' humps, baboons' buttocks, and kangaroos' pouches will surely draw some interest. Darker lines should have been used for the labelling on the pictures (it's sometimes difficult to trace a line's origin), and nowhere are the lurid colors used for the body parts explained. Still, the text, which serves as a bridge between a basic animal book and a biology textbook, will attract some young readers. Mary Harris Veeder