Baby Backyard Animals

Children's Literature - Katie DeWald

Baby animals steal the show in this guided reading level B volume of the "All about Baby Animals" series. The vivid, lifelike pictures serve a dual purpose in encouraging new readers to keep the pages turning; the pictures support understanding of the text and foster interest in the text. This beginning reader book has characteristics more common to books with higher reading levels: a table of contents, a picture glossary, an index, a section of related web sites, and a section listing related books. The picture glossary is conveniently located before the story, allowing readers to become familiar with new words before they encounter them in the text. The text follows a predictable pattern for most of the story: "I see a baby fox," and "I see a baby ground squirrel." Two pages deviate from this picture supported pattern: "What do you see in the grass?" and "Look up! What do you see in the tree?" The layout is appealing to young readers as large text appears on a white page, while the facing page contains a photo of a baby animal or a baby animal's habitat. Young readers and their teachers and parents will appreciate the accessible yet sophisticated elements of this book for beginning readers while being captivated by the familiar baby animals. Reviewer: Katie DeWald