Guinea Pigs Book

Creatures Great and Small
Grades K-3

Non-fiction Science

Patkau captures realistic characteristics seen in her illustrations of various animals, but she gives them a cartoon like quality by using bright, bold colors and large illustrations to appeal to children. The inside and back covers are a blue and white map of the continents, and oceans with small illustrations of various animals in relation to their geographical location. Most of the animals are illustrated across two pages with minimal text. The top corner or bottom corner of each page will introduce the animal's classification as, such as "Fish," "Mammals," and "Reptiles". A description is given, and sometimes two examples of fish or insects are given in no more than two sentences on each page. The text is written to appeal to a wide variety of age groups. The animal provides a self-description. For example the Dwarf Goby says, "Even though I am transparent, can you spy my little eye in this freshwater stream? Because I have no eyelids, my eyes are always open. Even while I sleep!" Some of the vocabulary might pose a problem for younger students. A Kindergartener might appreciate the bright bold illustrations in this book and it will introduce them to various animals, but words such as "transparent," "fossil," "rows of bony scutes," "echolocation," and "nocturnal," to name a few, would become a whole other lesson for children in grades K-1.

However, I think the book is still versatile and can be adapted to the age group being taught. Younger students can use this to learn about the variety of animals and study some of the animals' characteristics and habitat such as the animals color, how big or small it is, does it live in water or land. Older students (grades 2-3) can start learning the animal classification system, study the animals' characteristics in more detail and more about the animals' geographical location and habitats, specifically in which continent or ocean we find certain animals. Overall I think children of varying levels will really enjoy this book because the illustrations will certainly get their attention. The large format illustrations of animals are bold, large and colorful, and will appeal to most younger children's sense of natural curosity about the animal world.

Grades K-3
Science/Social Studies
This book can be used for a variety of age groups if the lessons are adapted appropriately for the age group. This book can be used in a multi-thematic lesson plan that covers science and geography to teach animal classification and habitat, and world geography.