Weird & Wild Animal Facts combines great images and short information

Weird & Wild Animal Facts by Jessica Loy has a very non-descript title. It sounds like a book that you might’ve seen before and forgotten about. However, Weird & Wild Animal Facts is a very solid book that’s engaging, entertaining and educational for kids of all ages. Any age will enjoy the book because of its pictures and multi-colored pages. However, the vocabulary is aimed at grades 4 and below; and while older kids will like the book they might crave something deeper.

This book is a great entry point into a variety of critters large and small. Each animal is covered on two pages that has five or more photos of them, some very close up while some are far away or of them in a pack. The vocabulary is presented in snippet format with each sentence moving around the page and key facts about them highlighted and in a bigger font. Animals profiled in the book range from the Panamanian Golden Frog, sea horse, vulture, warthog, Giant Pacific Octopus, giraffe and more.

What’s surprising about the book for older readers is how informative the book is and how fun it is to read. On more than a couple occasions I’ve taken this book aside when I went to the bathroom. The pictures; combined with the written information is really fun to read and because it’s in snippet form you’re more likely to remember it.

Our oldest is almost six and loves it when we read this book to him. He can read some of the words by himself and likes to look at the pictures too. He was out one day with his grandmother and they quickly saw a toy model of an ugly animal with a snout. “Oh, look, a boar”, she said.  “No, that’s not a boar, it’s a warthog”, he said.  She checked the tag on the toy and sure enough, it was a warthog. When she asked how he knew what that animal looked like he said that it was in a book that he had read. Excuse me while I start researching veterinary or zoology schools for the class of 2018.

This is a fun book that will inspire kids to learn more about animals. If they already like animals this will teach them more about critters they may not know. If they don’t like animals it’s presented in such a kid friendly way that it will make them curious about a subject that they’ll encounter in school.