Review: Weird and Wonderful Creations

Here’s a fun book for ages 4-8: Weird and Wonderful Creations published by Zonderkidz.  It’s a full-color hardback book with 123 pages.  It’s actually 4 books in 1!  The four books are: Spiders, Snakes, Bees, and Bats; Big Bugs, Little Bugs; Sea Creatures; Poisonous, Smelly, and Amazing Plants.  As you can probably tell from the titles, this is a book that would appeal to boys!

Each page has a wonderful photograph of the animal or plant that is being discussed on it.  The photos are definitely the best part of the book.  The words (sentences) are written on an easier reading level.  Some young children will be able to read the book independently.  The parent or teacher reading it will learn a ton of facts about each animal or plant!

There was one thing that I found a bit frustrating, though.  Sometimes a page would tell about something, but then the picture wouldn’t relate to it.  For example, on the page which tells us that baby mantises are called nymphs, it would be nice to have a picture of some nymphs–maybe side by side with an adult mantis.

I learned quite a lot from this book!  Did you know that fireflies once were used in China to light up lanterns? My favorite section was about the ocean animals, where we learn about jellyfish, sea horses, whales, and sea turtles.  In Spider, Snakes, Bees, and Bats, we learn about those four animals in general.  In Big Bugs, Little Bugs we learn about butterflies, goliath beetles, and praying mantises, and lightning bugs.  In Poisonous, Smelly, and Amazing Plants we read about a mushroom called the fly agaric, the corpse plant, the Venus flytrap, and redwood and sequoia trees.

There is an index in the back so you can easily find the animal or plant you’re looking for. And I loved that we learn that God is the amazing creator of all these creatures!

(I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this honest review.  This post also contains affiliate links.)