Ben Denne

This encyclopedia, released by Scholastic, is a traditionally-viewed informational text. This would be especially perfect during a lesson about the seas and oceans, but also just as a supplementary text for children that are interested in these subjects that are tired of only reading fictional texts. There are some children that just want the cold, hard facts, and this informational text will provide just that. There are bolded words that highlight important terminologies for readers, labels on illustrations and pictures, and side stories to explain the broader text. There are also links in the text that connect to the Internet and enliven the text, which I absolutely love so that students do not feel that they are being confined to a book or pages. I love the mix of illustrations and real photos of each of these animals, as some of the illustrations provide a more detailed look into the sea creatures than a photograph could capture on the surface. If a student has a specific question, let's say about sea serpents, we can turn to page 47 and read more about it. Scholastic Book Wizard has identified this book as a grade 1-4 level. Overall, I'd say this is a 5/5 because even after all of these years, I still absolutely love it.… (meer)