I See a Kookaburra

by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Boston:  Houghton Mifflin, 2005

In this bright colorful book, the reader gets to actively engage in finding out information about each animal because before you learn about the animals, you have to find them in their habitats!  A great way to grab the interest of students, playing "I Spy" increases the likelihood that students will turn the page to find out about the animals they've spotted.  I enjoyed this book a lot for this reason, but also because at the end, there are several pages devoted to giving more information about the animals.  Within the main text, the reader merely learns the name and maybe one characteristic of each animal--that the elephant shrew, for instance, scurries through the brush in the savannah.  At the end, the reader learns much more:  it is about the size of a rabbit, its diet and home, and the build of its body.  In this way, more advanced readers can delve into the details themselves or, for students reading with an adult, they get to find the animals and the adult can inform them of the details.

The illustrations in this work are very interesting.  Collages of cut and torn paper give the settings and the animals a lifelike quality, and the colors are bright and, I assume, true to nature.  One detail that I loved about I See a Kookaburra is how the animals are arranged on the pages.  Each habitat has two two-page spreads, the first including the habitat and the second identifying the animals.  On both pages, the animals are arranged in the exact same place.  So if the reader did not find the sea star in the tide pool, she can just flip back and know exactly where to look.  This was a great idea for young readers, who may not be able to find the animals on their own, and just need a little help.

I loved this book.  It was very informative and engaging, and I think it would be great to add to any classroom.