I spy animal books

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“Animal Eyes.” by Beth Fielding

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Updated: January 23, 2012 3:20AM

Have you ever thought about animal eyes? Beth Fielding has and she tells us all about them in “Animal Eyes.”

She begins with a simple look at people’s eyes and then we learn about cats’ eyes. Cats can’t see in total darkness, but their eyes open very wide and quickly in the dark, allowing them to “see” as much as possible.

Elephants are huge animals but they have little eyes and don’t see well. The ostrich has the biggest eye on land but the colossal squid has the largest eye on Earth.

Birds see color better than people do. Chameleon eyes operate separately, one looking one way and one the other. They also have eyelids that are fused together and act like sunglasses.

There is a guessing game of “eyes” in the back of the book, as well as a glossary and index. I like that the pictures are photographs, not representations. Although some of the eyes are creepy, we know that’s the way they really look.

For the little ones, “I Spy with My Little Eye” by Edward Gibbs uses a cutout circle to show off an animal’s eye. Each two-page spread shows a color and asks a question about an animal. The next page shows the animal itself. There is a good variety of animals, featuring a few that we don’t usually see. As we get to the end, we meet a frog that spies “you”! The back cover has a circle cutout and we are asked to look through it and see what we can “spy.” This covers animals and colors as well as using lots of repetition that little ones love and need.

Another interesting animal topic is “Animal Eggs” by Dawn Cusick and Joanne O’Sullivan. Subtitled “An Amazing Clutch of Mysteries and Marvels,” we now learn about various animals that lay eggs. Included are several mammals. I knew about the platypus but did not realize that spiny anteaters also lay eggs. Eggs of all different shapes and colors are deposited in all kinds of places and range greatly in size. The ostrich wins the prize for biggest egg but I couldn’t find a declaration of the smallest egg. The male jawfish holds his mate’s eggs in his mouth for more than a week to keep them safe and warm. I guess he doesn’t eat during that time. We even meet some egg stealers along the way. At the back, again, there is a guessing game. This also uses photographs instead of illustrations, giving us a true picture.

“Hummingbirds” by Jeanette Larson and Adrienne Yorinks does not use photos. It uses quilts created by Yorinks to illustrate “Facts and Folklore from the Americas” for us. The quilts are gorgeous, and we learn lots of facts in between folk tales about these fascinating birds. We don’t know how “old” hummingbirds are but there are mentions in pre-Columbian works and they are only found in the Americas. Birders of all ages would enjoy this lovely little book.