Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals

I checked out 4 animal encyclopedias for children. They are all great, but three of them were classified by the kinds/habitat/class. The Kingfisher's animal encyclopedia is organized alphabetically and dedicates one or two pages maximum on one animal. My 4 year old likes it the best. When he wants to look up shark, he goes, 'sh, sh,... letter S!' and he can find it easily. In one page, this book sums up what preschoolers and kindergarteners want to know about the shark. This is truely the best first animal encyclopedia for children.

We bought this book after already purchasing the Animal Encyclopedia from DK. If I had it to do over again I would have just purchased the book from DK. The real photos and minimum of two to three page spread on each animal make it so much more informative.

My nephew, 4 years old, loves this book! He loves "reading" all the pages, and looking at all the pictures. It's tremendously colorful, and interesting even for the adults. I definitely would recommend it for any child with an interest in animals, or for any adult who hopes to foster such an interest.

Before buying this book, I wondered if it covered enough animals to make it worthwhile. It does. Rarely are we disappointed when we reach for this kid-friendly encyclopedia. Some entries cover several similar animals, such as the entry for the Kangaroo and Wallaby. Each entry contains a nice combination of illustrations/photographs and text. The information is nicely geared toward preschoolers and younger elementary-aged children. So far, it's been able to answer most of the questions of my very inquisitive 3 1/2 year old. The book contains a very nice table of contents, glossary and index. While finding information on animals, my son has also learned how to use these handy reference tools. However, the book does not contain a map. A map would be a welcome addition since the book often mentions where the animals live. We use a separate map/globe/atlas but it makes the whole process more bulky.Several of the entries cover animal-related infomation: camoflage, communication, conservation, coral reef, defense, evolution, habitat, migration, and reproduction. There are also separate entries for amphibian, insect, mammal, and reptile. The book contains some hand-on art and experiments for a few of the entries. The ones we have tried are very age appropriate for my 3 1/2 year old. We've referred to this book a lot. Judging by the quality of information and the interest my son shows in it, we'll continue to do so for quite some time.

My son Jason just loves this book. He chooses an animal fromthe book each night for a bedtime story, where I make up a story aboutthe animal using some of the facts from this book. The pictures are wonderful and full of color. The whole family has learned a lot from this fact filled book.