Porcupines

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

Porcupines are rodents and they are certainly different looking with what appears to be long gray hair. When alarmed part of those hairs stand up and become sharp quills that can do damage to a potential predator. Porcupines do not live in urban or suburban areas and their diet appears to be vegetarian—fruit, nuts, berries, and bark. The words printed in bold are defined in the glossary and the full color photographs are excellent and well matched to the text. "Backyard Wildlife" is part of the larger "Blastoff! Readers" series. The books all have a similar format and include a table of contents, a discussion of the five levels and what they are expected to offer according to the literacy experts, a glossary, pointers to additional books, a link to factfinder.com which provides a list of related web sites, and an index. This Level 1 book provides the most support for emergent readers through repetition of high frequency words, a short text, predictable sentence patterns, and strong visual support. A good choice for early elementary nonfiction; although I would not really consider a porcupine backyard wildlife except in rural areas. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot