Review: Curious Critters

In his children's picture book Curious Critters (November 2011, Wild Iris Publishing, hardcover, ages 4-8) photographer David FitzSimmons turns his camera on a variety of animals common throughout North America. Curious Critters presents stunning images of everyday animals, including a red flat bark beetle, an Eastern spiny softshell turtle, a spotted salamander, and many other intriguing creatures. Each Curious Critter is photographed against a white backdrop, showcasing the animals' colors, textures, and shapes with precision and clarity. Along with each photo is a vignette, told from the critter's perspective, that educates and entertains. For example, a bush katydid explains her bubblegum-pink color, a poetic opossum opines upon her often-shortened name, and a far-from-modest black swallowtail butterfly lets readers in on her secret for avoiding predators.

My kiddos are in love with this book! They already love animals so I knew this book would be perfect for them. The photographs show so much detail and enough information for us parents to be able to tell our kids about the animal. What I like even more is the website for the book has a lot of interactive features for you to continue learning about the animals in the book, including eCards, word searches and coloring pages.

Check out some of the sample pages of the book here.

A huge thank you to Lorna Garano Book Publicity for introducing me to this book and providing me with a review copy!