Nic Bishop: Marsupials
Starred Review. Grade 2–5—This book is full of the exceptional-quality photographs and enticing facts that readers have come to expect from Bishop. His endnotes explain how he captured the images using trip wires and bait for many of these nocturnal mammals. In addition to captions, an informative sentence is highlighted in a contrasting color and larger type within explanatory paragraphs that accompany each stunning image. Readers learn that baby koalas eat "pap," a mushy, green baby food that is actually their mother's "poop," that some marsupials don't have pouches, and that all start out the size of a bean or smaller. Details like these are accompanied by tangible analogies that enhance the facts. The center spread opens out into four pages that reveal a dramatic multiple exposure of a sugar glider leaping across an expanse in a sequence that captures its flight. This is a book to wow young audiences.—Janet S. Thompson, Chicago Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.