Animal Sound Treasury Book Review

Book Review
Encyclopaedia Britannica Kids: Animal Sound Treasury
Adapted by Kathy Broderick
Published in September 2016

Why we chose this book:
We love reading and learning about animals, and I often end up streaming YouTube videos of the animals we read about so that we can hear what they sound like. Animal Sound Treasury sounded like it was made to address this very problem! Phoenix International Publications provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mom's Review
Animal Sound Treasury introduces readers to 38 animals using photographs, sound, and text. With only one or two animals per page, the text is not long. The content, however, is fascinating and the writing inviting.

Readers will be anything but bored. The sound buttons and the bright, close-up photographs invite the reader's attention and the text retains it. Comprehensible to young children, but written at a level that will appeal to older children and be comfortable reading for an adult, the short paragraphs pack a powerful punch. Animal Sound Treasury covers the basics you see in most animal books, but also includes several details about the animal's behaviors you may not know. (Who knew a katydid's hearing organ, the tympanum, is located on each foreleg?) Flowing sentences make for enjoyable reading aloud; it feels much more like I am talking with T than reading an information run-down at him.  And don't forget to make the lion roar when you see the word "lion"!

I am not sure who is more delighted with Animal Sound Treasury. We have finally found an animal book that has it all (awesome photos, fantastic information, lovely writing, plus sound)! And T loves selecting different animals to read about and hear, AND he also loves to scare us with the ferocious roars. Don't tell him that we know there's no tiger in the house!

Son's Review
(Age: 4)
Mom: Tell me about it. What did you like?

Son: It's a true-thing book, and it's a press buttons animal story. What you do with it is turn to a specific page and press the button three times. What makes it good is it's...about animals and I really like animals.

Mom: Do you have a favorite animal?

Son, flipping to the meerkat page: My favorite animal is a baby animal. It's super cute. It's so cute! It's a cute animal. It's a soft and super cute animal!

Mom: What was your favorite thing you learned? Why did you like learning that?

Son: My favorite thing that I learned is that mice eat almost everything. I liked that mice eat everything, and I would wanna feed mice my compost.

Mom: How can you connect this to other books and to things you do?

Son: Well, I can connect this book to Paw Patrol because Paw Patrol is also a button book. Well, I can connect to clever things and learning and jumping and climbing and running. I run like monkeys, and I climb like monkeys, and I jump like monkeys.

Mom: What surprised you?

Son: Well, that bears poorly see.

Mom: Do you have a favorite animal sound?

Son: Yes it is *presses tiger and jaguar buttons."

Mom: What is special about Animal Sound?

Son: The special thing is that it is a buttons book. Well, I would suggest that it would be a good book to select from the library, if the library has it.

Mom: Who would like it and who could learn from it?

Son: Um, well, "Who would like it?" would be a very good question to ask me. Who would like it is called "anyone who likes animals." Who would learn from it – who it is is anyone who doesn't know about animals.

Mom: And what did you think?

Son: It is a good book! It is a great book!