Chimpanzees

Children's Literature

This entry in the "Wild Wild World" series contains an overview, interesting facts subcategorized by headings of double-page spreads (e.g., "Many Kinds of Food," "Cold-Blooded," or "Special Defenses"), and lots of photographs arranged artistically or sequentially to illustrate a concept. Unfortunately, all photos are of chimps in captivity rather. While the photographs are lack captions, they surround and face the short paragraphs of text that appear on each page. So information about grooming is accompanied by five photos of chimps sprucing up. By not using captions, the series misses the chance to educate children as to how to "read" the photos more deeply or to confirm what we think is being pictured. A three-word glossary, suggested other books for research (but none by Jane Goodall), and no index make this at best an additional purchase for most libraries. Perhaps families could read this book as an introduction to the topic because the good pictures will stimulate conversation and might lead to research in more complete texts. 2003, Blackbirch Press/Gale Group, Ages 7 to 11.
—Susan Hepler, Ph.D.