Reviewed by Dianne Bates
This is a superb, large book, beautifully illustrated
and designed, that features more than 125 mammals from around the world. No
illustrators are named, but the back cover blurb reads, ‘Enchanting vintage
artwork from some of the world’s most accomplished zoological artists make this
visual tome as stunning as it is informative and a must-have treasure for
animal lovers.’ Agreed!
There’s a double-page spread of contents with twenty-seven
animal species, and each species listing mammals with their common and Latin
names. For example, under ‘Monkeys and Apes’ are the Eastern Gorilla, Chimpanzee,
Bornean Orangutan, Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey, Rhesus Macaque, and Yellow Baboon.
If you then turn to the eight Monkeys and Apes pages, you are introduced to ‘the
primate order’, made up of roughly 521 species. There are some interesting
facts such as ‘primates have larger brains than most animals, and ‘members of
the Primate order have prehensible five-digit hands, feet with flat nails’, and
so on.
There’s a page of primates which includes gibbons,
marmosets, lemurs, tamarins, and more creatures, again, with their Latin names.
Each of the monkeys and apes have a dedicated full-page that includes their
conservation status (for example, the chimpanzee is endangered), their
classification (into kingdom, class, order, and so on). There are also facts on
such things as community group size, the first time a female gives birth, and
when infants learn to walk. Regarding chimpanzees, there is an outbreak box
which details how intelligent these mammals are and how they use tools from a
young age.
The publisher states in the book that it has a special
mission - - through its ‘Book-for-Book-Promise’ it donates one book to kids in
need for every book it sells. So if you buy this book that promises visual
delights and hours and hours of interesting reading, you are also benefiting others
less fortunate than yourself.
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