Jumping Kangaroos

School Library Journal

K-Gr 2-New readers hungry for factual information will be drawn to these titles. While the material is not comprehensive, the books are serviceable as introductory texts. Kangaroos begins with an overview of the Australian animals but focuses throughout on the red kangaroo. Accompanying photographs are adequate, though sometimes fuzzy. Drivers recounts the daily tasks of a familiar community worker. Although the books are in the same series, they do not follow a consistent format. Each one contains a glossary, but Kangaroos ends with a simple "Hunt and Find" bullet list of points covered, whereas Drivers concludes with an index, additional resources, and two pages of facts that, given the likely audience for this book, will require shared reading with an adult. Similar in physical scale to "Pebble Plus" (Capstone) and the "Rookie Read-About" series (Children's Press), these books beg to be held by small hands. However, those series have more appealing graphics, particularly "Pebble Books," with crisp, clear, full-page photos.-Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.