Amphibians and Reptiles

July 1, 2016
Hall compares amphibians and reptiles in very minimal text. The volume is driven by large color photos of the seven animals: some of the pictures are instructive, but others lack context and many are too close-range or unfocused for young readers to clearly identify what they are viewing. Back matter includes activities and information about the work of herpetologists.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 15, 2015
Introducing herpetology. Amphibians and reptiles are so similar that there is a single word for those who study them: herpetologists. For her young audience, the author introduces these coldblooded vertebrates and points out some essential differences in egg-laying, early development, breathing, skin, and poison or venom. Her text reads like a set of class notes: "Most amphibians have moist, smooth skin. / Reptiles have dry scales." What makes this book successful, like others in the author's Compare and Contrast series, are the large, close-up stock pictures that accompany each statement and help visual learners retain these important facts. The double-page spread showing a toothy crocodile head and its massive scales is hard to forget. Hall's text, though brief, is not simple. She uses necessary basic but possibly unfamiliar terms such as "cold-blooded," "metamorphosis," and "oxygen." She distinguishes three classes of amphibians (frogs and toads; salamanders and newts; and caecilians) and four classes of reptiles (crocodylians; tuatara; lizards, worm lizards, and snakes; and turtles and tortoises). Young readers and pre-readers who enjoy learning facts will welcome this approach and the accompanying quiz (answers supplied) and extra information about vertebrate classes, herpetology study, and scrambled-word review of a frog's life cycle. A solid, basic overview. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

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