(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. As part of their mission "to make sure [animals] stay healthy and safe," zookeepers are called upon to do a lot of things. Shining a tortoise's shell, brushing a hippo's teeth, and making a frozen bloodsicle for a hyena are some of their many duties. Jenkins's consistently masterful cut-paper illustrations showcase twenty-one creatures (one or two per spread); a few sentences of text provide more information about the animal and its care. The final two spreads offer a quick zoo timeline, "zoo pros and cons," a world map showing some top zoos, and more information about the featured species.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Jenkins and Page (The Frog Book, rev. 1/19) team up to tackle a subject that may make your skin crawl--while introducing you to what's crawling on your skin. Each tiny, often microscopic organism described here is boldly illustrated with cut-and-torn-paper collage and magnified as much as four hundred times its actual size. This allows the viewer to see each and every hair on the zebra jumping spider's body, or the walrus-like tusks on the cat flea. Some "tiny monsters" will be familiar, such as the bedbug or head louse. Others will seem as if they're from another planet entirely (take a look at the marine scale worm...or don't). The text accompanying each organism is brief but succinct, and additional information about each of the twenty-four creatures included is given at book's end. Perhaps appropriately, the authors provide a warning on the first page: "After meeting some of these tiny monsters, you may never look at your cereal, your pillow, or your eyelashes in quite the same way."

Reviewer: Hill Saxton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. "Sometimes an animal wants to stand out" for many reasons related to survival. Prolific animal-book authors Jenkins and Page take another look at animal adaptation as they describe why animals puff up, fan out, dance, roar, light up, and more to draw attention to themselves. Such actions are on display in Jenkins's crisp paper-collage art against white backgrounds. More information on each animal is appended. Reading list, websites.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Ward primarily focuses on mother animals digging holes to protect young, but she also offers other reasons for digging (e.g., squirrel to bury nuts, frog to hibernate). A purposeful rhyming text indicates why or where an animal digs, while a brief paragraph on each spread goes into more detail about each creature. Jenkins adds appeal with his trademark collage illustrations.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. "Who Am I?" ask seven animals including a rabbit, crab, and flamingo. Viewers are first challenged with a set of descriptive phrases and accompanying illustration clues to each creature's identity. Turn the page, and an eye-catching cut-paper illustration of the animal in an active pose fills the spread. The text uses descriptive vocabulary and encourages age-appropriate scientific observation. Back matter features field guide–like details in question-and-answer format. Reading list.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Animal sounds are the focus of this high-interest book populated with Jenkins's arresting cut-paper animal collages, strikingly placed against plain white backgrounds. So "can an aardvark bark?" No, it grunts, and other animals grunt, too. In the what and why of squeals, bellows, and growls we detect the greetings, warnings, and territorial assertions of animal communication.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. A clear, informative text emphasizes three key scientific concepts about locomotion: the act of movement, body parts employed, and purposes for moving. Each form of locomotion is introduced with a spread featuring an oddity, such as a walking octopus, shown in Jenkins's vivid, trademark torn- and cut-paper collage illustrations. A second spread about the same topic includes additional animals (in smaller illustrations). End papers feature more facts.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2016

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Gray, fox, red, and flying squirrels are the subject of the latest book from this talented duo. Lively rhyming text describes the active creatures, while the paper-collage art shows them climbing, stretching, and peeking out from the pages. Additional information on squirrels and the trees they depend on renders the book useful for report writing as well as storytime. Reading list.

Reviewer: Nancy Sheridan

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. The authors impart considerable information about certain behaviors of eighteen animals via numbered instructions for readers to duplicate, say, a python swallowing a pig. While this conceit is maintained throughout ("you'll have to do a few things that you're probably not used to"), the steps are accurate and the jaunty language catchy; Jenkins's collages are striking as always. An afterword gives additional facts. Bib.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Brief, clear paragraphs introduce each section of this exposition of "Nature's Perfect Package," including "Egg Layers," "Egg Eaters," and "Incubation." Attention to details such as scale and color inform the labeled torn- and cut-paper collage illustrations; captions are focused, helpful, and interesting. A final double-spread compares the internal development of a chicken and an alligator egg. Additional species facts appended. Reading list.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(2) PS Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Rhyming, onomatopoeic text introduces the woodpecker and the cadences of its industrious life: "Wedge it. Sledge it. / Wham by wham. / Clear those chips. / SLAM, SLAM, SLAM!" Cut- and torn-paper collages provide action-filled perspectives on the birds' activities and capture intricacies of each species' markings. Additional information about anatomy, behaviors, and ways people can observe and protect these birds is appended. Reading list.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2015

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Using direct address, an unseen narrator asks a variety of animals--from a bighorn sheep to an Egyptian vulture--about their unusual features. Answers, delivered in amusing, conversational language, explain function or purpose. (Why is the thorny devil so spiny? "Think about it. Would you want to bite down on me?") Jenkins's hallmark torn- and cut-paper collages showcase each animal. Bib.

Reviewer: Betty Carter

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Each spread of this informative book features rhyming verse and precise collage art to highlight differences in the types of nests that birds build, whether by use of varying materials (e.g., spiderwebs or stones) or by choice of location (in a tree hole or on a rocky cliff edge). Additional facts appear in a smaller font on each spread. Websites.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins & Edel Rodriguez. Told in an accessible first-person narrative by the behavioral ecologist author, this book describes the Darwin's frog, an unusual species in which the male broods tadpoles in his vocal sac until they emerge as froglets. The science is solid, and the combination of photos, sketches, and Jenkins's art brings the history of the frog's discovery and its unique behavior to life. Reading list. Bib., glos., ind

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. The title says it all. In this movable book with engaging sliders, pop-ups, and lift-the-flaps, animals that have upside-down advantages for feeding, defense, predation, etc.--from skunks, bats, and flamingos to lesser-known creatures such as nuthatches and pangolins--are briefly introduced and pictured in bright, clean collage art. Endpapers provide additional information on each animal's size and habitat.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. In a comfortingly repetitive, cadenced text ("Can you hunt like a bear? / It's June. Find food. / But where?"), direct questions ask readers not only if they can eat but also search, gather, climb, and even bathe like a brown bear. Jenkins's torn-paper illustrations are reproduced with such clarity that one can almost grasp the thick, fuzzy fur of the bear.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2013

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Like Jenkins's first collection of Worth's poems, Animal Poems, bold collages of precisely observed creatures dramatize eighteen welcome additions to Worth's oeuvre. The soulful "Pug" is a worried charmer ("Perhaps because, for / Dogs, they look / A lot like people"); a primeval black bull is "Rough-hewn, / From the planet's / Hard side, / From the cold / Black rock / That abides."

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2013

(3) PS Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. This board book introduces six animals, including a crab, a fish, and a butterfly. The answer to an introductory question ("Can you spot the green animal?") is revealed by lifting an often leaf-shaped flap to see the answer underneath (a snake). Additional information about the hidden animal is shown in smaller type. The colorful and multi-layered collage illustrations add context and content.

Reviewer: Viki Ash

(3) PS Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Bites taken out of the pages provide young dinosaur lovers with a tactile shiver as they count through this collection of prehistoric beasts (pronunciation guide for the five dinosaurs included). The board book's back matter includes age-appropriate information on what the dinosaurs really ate and a one-to-ten review of items within the illustrations that can be counted. An impressive introduction to nonfiction.

Reviewer: Viki Ash

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Steve Jenkins. Pringle traces scientific developments that led to Darwin's On the Origin of Species as well as subsequent discoveries that have contributed to understanding of species change. Straightforward explanations of such concepts as natural selection, genetic mutations, and speciation are woven through the historical timeline, making even the most complex ideas understandable. Copious illustrations include photographs, diagrams, and Jenkins's wonderfully detailed cut-paper illustrations.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2012