Curious Creatures series
Reviewed by Debbie Booth-Johnson, Instructor

This is a series of short non-fiction books about five fascinating creatures: wolves, bats, owls, snakes, and spiders. Each book describes the animal’s appearance, habits, habitat, unusual facts and its place in the ecosystem. For example, did you know there is a type of bat with a five foot wing span, or that the orb web of a spider can be up to 19 feet around? The authors also address some of the myths people have about the nature and behaviour of these animals. For example, “Poisonous snakes bite only when they are frightened—and only as their last choice.” One student commented, “I feel how much the author loves wolves.” The picture of the rusting leg-hold trap on the last page of the book about wolves does evoke strong feelings for some students. Each book ends on a positive note reminding us of the value of each of these creatures to our environment and why they should be protected.

These books are particularly well designed with a good balance of print and excellent nature photography or drawings on each page. The information is presented in plain language that will appeal to most adults. The length, only 16 pages, size of print, vocabulary, and pictures make them very accessible to beginning readers. All the students who have reviewed these books have had very positive comments. They found each of the books informative and interesting — the kind of books they would be willing to read more than once.

The series also includes a teacher’s guide. This booklet provides teaching suggestions for each book and reproducible masters: word searches, cloze exercises, matching, and true and false exercises. All the instructors who have used the Curious Creatures series have indicated they are a valuable resource in their classrooms. Because of their broad appeal, excellent formatting and useful information, these books would also be appropriate to purchase as multiple copies for class sets.