Gillian Doherty

I really enjoyed reading the informational book “Birds” for a few different reasons. The book was very well organized and one of the first few pages was the table of contents. The authors did a good job organizing the information by category, including what a bird is, their flying styles, their bodies (legs and feet), mating, different types of birds, etc. The second thing I really enjoyed about this book was how engaging it was. For example, sentences like “flying machines” and show more “animal partnerships” were used to add a bit of humor to an informational text. The third reason I enjoyed this book was because of the different textiles that were included. On almost every page there is one (or more) pictures that goes along with the text. Along with the different information presented on each page, there is a fun fact at the bottom. This book presented a lot of useful information, especially if you’re interested in birds, and did a good job at adding color and grabbing the attention of the reader. show less

She doesn't need to be able to read to know what things she's looking for, and the items aren't quite as well hidden as in the "I Spy" books, which makes this very appropriate for the younger crowd.

The illustrations are cute as well.

One thing that does stand out is that all the fairies are white. Well, no. Most of them are plainly caucasian, and some of them are maybe kinda tanned. They have all the range of natural hair colors and then some (but not, I note, the range of hair textures, show more though I appreciate that that could be harder to illustrate), and they have a wide range of wing and clothing colors and styles - it would have been trivial to draw some of them as non-white... or at least color some of them a different shade than peach.

My niece, I think, isn't old enough yet to realize that none of the fairies in this book look like her (even beyond the fact that she doesn't have wings, of course!), but... it would have been nice to see the effort made.

It's still a good book, I'm just disappointed because this oversight is very obvious and it would have been so easy to fix. show less

This book is a collection of 12 short stories (Folk Tales) involving dragons.

The book contains very nice, colorful illustrations although I would not consider this to be a picture book by definition.

The stories are suited well for children of all ages but due to the scarcity of detailed and descriptive pictures, I would recommend it for children age 6-9.

My particular favorite story in the collection is "The Lace Dragon". It has the familiarity of the story of "Rumplestiltskin" but portrays a show more woman who is skilled at creating animals made of lace. The tears of the woman held captive by the emperor, magically bring the lace-woven animals to life; the last of which, a dragon, saves her from captivity.

The book portrays dragons as both good characters and bad so there is much versatility. show less

The Usborne Things to Spot books are outstanding and an almost guaranteed source of interest for children of all ages. The youngest will enjoy the variety of things to look at while older children will be able to enjoy the search for specific objects in the detailed pictures.