Walking Sticks

April 1, 2013

Gr 1-3-Browsers and report writers alike will enjoy this series about giant animals. Readers will learn about the featured animals' diets, defenses, habitats (all titles include a map), physical characteristics, and life cycles. The size of the creatures is compared to objects young children would know, such as soccer balls, pencils, or refrigerators. Each spread features large, vibrant, color photos that emphasize the magnitude of the animals, a few sentences of text, and text boxes outlined in coordinating borders, such as dog collars or feathers, that offer additional facts (e.g., "One bite from a king cobra has enough poison to kill an elephant or 50 people"). Environmental issues and pet care are addressed in some titles. Just as in Bearport's "SuperSized!" (2007) and "More SuperSized!" (2010), each book concludes with a list of related animals and a picture glossary, which will help students discover visually the meaning of new words.

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
Grades 1-4 This offering from the Even More Supersized! series introduces readers to the world's longest insect: Chan's megastick, a walking stick native to the rain forests of northern Borneo that can grow to a length of 22 inches. Using double-page-spread chapters, Gray provides a wide range of basic information about this species. He details size, habitat, eating practices, predators, defense mechanisms, and life cycle. Each spread contains a brief section of text; crisp, captioned, full-color photographs; and an occasional map or related graphic. The back matter includes examples of other long insects. The photographs are particularly well chosen; captioned arrows call attention to structures that might otherwise be difficult to seeimportant for an animal whose specialty is camouflage. This makes a good choice for beginning researchers as well as curious browsers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)