Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth

Davies, N., & Layton, N. (2006). Extreme animals: The toughest creatures on Earth. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press.

Genre: Informational Text

Age Group: Grade K-4^th grade

Summary

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth is an informational text that describes the various habitats of animals all over the world. It describes climates that are unimaginable for humans to live in.  It describes these conditions and makes it easy for students to compare and contrast these conditions between animals and relate this to what humans need to survive.  There are a lot of kid-friendly illustrations to help visualize what the fact is that is being discussed. 

Reflection

This is an entertaining and engaging children’s book that will definitely get your students excited to discover more about different types of animals.  The book is extremely interesting and is good for comparing and contrasting various habitats as well as teaching questioning; I think the facts in this book will provoke a lot of questions for students.  The structure of this book is description; the author discusses the different habits such as volcanoes, wastelands, and deserts.  The facts are compared to what humans could not endure.  The layout of the pages is a double-page spread that discusses intriguing facts about the particular animal- whether it be bacteria, amphibians, reptiles, etc.  For instance, it tells you “fleas can resist gravity that would break human bones.”  The illustrations are also appealing to a student.  They are cartoon-like and allow for the informative text to be more child-friendly.  An example is the title shown below.