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THE ANIMAL KINGDOM by Jenny Wood

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

By

Pub Date: March 31st, 1992
Publisher: Macmillan

This handsome, oversized browsing book devotes two pages to each of 12 habitats, including swamps, deserts, tropical grasslands, the sea, and the Arctic and Antarctic. For each environment, seven or more animals are illustrated, together with exceedingly brief information. A typical caption: ""The white rhinoceros is one of the rarest African mammals. It usually grazes alone."" Some of the statements are not supported in other sources; for example, describing lions, Wood states that ""At night the females usually hunt for food."" The illustrations give few clues to the sizes of different animals; scientific names are not given. A world map indicates the location of each type of habitat. American readers may be surprised to note that the Oregon and California coast is a desert, and that there are no mountains in the eastern US. Still, young children will enjoy the attractive illustrations; they will have to look elsewhere for information of any depth.