Crazy About Cats and Horses: Wild and Tame

My son has a very specific taste when it comes to books. He wants to read about all animals all the time. For that reason his favorite publisher has become Flying Eye Books. For those unfamiliar with this publisher, they produce deluxe hardcover books that are equal parts beautiful and educational. Today, I would like to tell you about two of those books - Crazy About Cats and Horses: Wild and Tame.

Crazy About Cats is a book written and illustrated by Owen Davey. You might recognize his name from Mad About Monkeys or Smart About Sharks. This hardcover book is approximately 40 pages long and begins by explaining what cats are. There are between 37 and 41 different species of cats, which belong to a group of mammals known as felids. They can live in a variety of habitats, are carnivores, and are generally shy of people. Felid-like animals have been around for about 50 million years and are divided into eight groups based on their history of evolution. Other chapters illustrate their basic anatomy, their territory, what they eat, how they hunt, and even cats in mythology. The sections my son and I found most interesting were when they highlighted specific cats and also the awards section which told who had the loudest roar or longest jump. I was surprised to learn that tigers are actually the largest cat and not the lion. This is a gorgeous book, and Owen Davey is a masterful illustrator. He makes the animals come alive and growl right off the page. Highly recommended for the cat-lover in your life!

Horses: Wild and Tame begins by telling us what a horse is and how it evolved from a small dog-like animal to the animal we know and love today. Its hoof evolved over 60 million years from a four-toed hoof to the one part there is now. Horses each have a different character and are described as cold, hot, and warmblooded. We then progress through the history of horses from prehistoric to war horses to royal steeds and lastly work horses. The most interesting sections focuses on famous horses and legendary horses - famous horses like Bucephalus who belonged to Alexander the Great and legendary horses like Pegasus or Black Beauty. This was an interesting book that gives a detailed history not just on horses, but the way humans have domesticated them and coexisted with them through the centuries. You never really think about all the functions and uses that horses served man, but this book makes you stop and appreciate how much better our lives are because of these majestic creatures.

These books were provided to me for free by Flying Eye Books in exchange for an honest review.

Wild Animals of the South (Flying Eye Books)

Flying Eye Books publishes some of the most visually stunning children's books I have ever witnessed. Today, I would like to tell you about Wild Animals of the South,  the follow-up book to Wild Animals of the North. The book is about a 300 mm x 238 mm hardback book, which is illustrated by Dieter Braun. It focuses on animals found in Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia and divides the book into those four sections. Each animal is given its name, Latin genus and species, a gorgeous illustration that takes up one or two pages, and then some of the animals get an accompanying paragraph that provides an interesting fact about the specific animal. For example, "The more nourished and strong a lion is, the darker, thicker, and longer their mane appears."

Within this book, your children will meet lions and tigers, hippos and monkeys, and might even spot a flamingo or two. The detail and color with the illustrations are meticulous and jaw-dropping. I said it with the last book, and it stands true with this one as well. The book reminds me of Audubon's illustrations and transport you to the different locations these animals would be found. It will certainly capture your child's imagination, engender in them a love of wildlife, and instruct them on animals they might not ever be exposed to otherwise. I cannot recommend this two book series anymore highly, and I firmly believe this collection belongs in every child's library.

This book was provided to me for free by Flying Eye Books in exchange for an honest review.

Mad About Monkeys and Wild Animals of the North (Flying Eye Books)

When I think of children's books that are both educational and beautiful, the one publisher that always pops in my head first is Flying Eye Books. Today, I would like to tell you about two of their latest releases - Mad About Monkeys and Wild Animals of the North.

Mad About Monkeys is a 40 page chapter book that is heavily illustrated. The chapters are only two pages each, but it still qualifies as a chapter book. The book begins by talking about what monkeys are and evolution. The next chapter talks about the differences between Old World and New World monkeys. Other chapters talk about differences between large and small monkeys, their social life, and what monkeys are best at certain things, i.e., speed and intelligence. One of the closing chapters discusses monkey mythology, including their importance in the Hindu religion and Chinese zodiac. The final chapter discusses deforestation and the impact it is having on the monkeys of the world. Overall, I found this book to be very informative. It contained a nice mixture of useful knowledge and fun facts. However, the star of this book were the illustrations. Owen Davey does a remarkable job making the many different species of monkeys come alive on the pages. The only complaint I have about the book is the matter of fact statement that humans and monkeys evolved from a common ancestor. This is scientific speculation at best, as it has never been proven. For that reason, I deducted a star from my review. If you end up buying this book and liking it, be sure to check out Davey's next book Smart About Sharks.

Wild Animals of the North is an over-sized picture book that takes the reader through animals of the Northern Hemisphere. The book is divided into three sections for the three different continents - North America, Europe, and Asia. Most (but not all) of the animals are given a two page spread, which includes their name, Latin name, and a brief paragraph that tells information about where the animal lives, what it eats, and other interesting trivia about them. I was disappointed there wasn't this kind of information on the red panda, because it looked like a fascinating creature, but this just encourages the child and their parent to investigate some animals further. The pictures in this book are breathtaking and Dieter Brown is a true artist. If I may be so bold, I would compare this book to John James Audubon's Birds of America. Some might view this as blasphemy of sorts, but you have to see this book and make that judgment for yourselves. Now, I must patiently await the book Wild Animals of the South to complete this beautiful set of books.

These books were provided to me for free by Flying Eye Books in exchange for honest reviews. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!

Beautiful Birds and This Strange Wilderness (Flying Eye Books and University of Nebraska Press)

Nature is a beautiful thing, if you take the time to stop and appreciate it. Unfortunately, we seem to be moving non-stop lately. The concrete jungle is also ever-expanding. Technology is becoming pervasive and people can't seem to take their eyes off their phones. Today, I invite you to appreciate some beauty and check out these two books on birds. The first one, for young children, is called Beautiful Birds and is from Flying Eye Books. The other book is for the older crowd and is called This Strange Wilderness from University of Nebraska Press.

Beautiful Birds is a 12" x 9" fully illustrated "A is for" book. By this description, I mean that each letter of the alphabet has a bird associated with it. For example, "A is for albatross, the admiral of the skies. B is for bee-eaters, BEWARE any bug that flies." Each page is dedicated to one bird, with a vibrantly colored illustration, and a one-line descriptor, as seen above. As you can also see there is a bit of a rhyming scheme to this book, but a lot of the descriptors are too advanced for the intended audience of this book. "Q is for quetzal, a god among us." How many 7 year-old children will know about the Aztecs and their deities? If you take this book at face value, which is a gorgeously illustrated book that can teach your children the alphabet and birds at the same time, then it is a top-notch book. If your children have more questions after reading about some of these birds, then you could make expand the lesson for this book and research the birds that interest them. You could also use it as a beginner's field guide. Overall, a quality made book that your kids will enjoy reading through.

One could argue that no one loved birds more than John James Audubon. He devoted his life to discovering and painting every North American species of birds. The book This Strange Wilderness is a biography of Audubon and also includes some of his artwork, which is stunning if you have never seen it. The book begins with Audubon's birth in Haiti and the death of his mother he never knew. His father, a French sea captain and plantation owner, took him back to France where he and his wife Anne raised James and his half-sister Rose. James' father was responsible for his love of birds and his passion for illustrating them. Audubon was never happy with his drawings. He was so disappointed with them that he burned the drawings every year on his birthday with a vow to do better.

The book then chronicles the horrors in France, including the French Revolution, and Audubon's engineered escape to America. It was here where Audubon met his wife. He had three children by her, two boys, and a girl who died at a very early age. Audubon had several failed business ventures and contributed much to the study of bird migration, ornithology, and taxonomy while attempting to provide for his family in these business ventures that failed. There are times in this book that Audubon didn't come off as a particularly great husband or father, as he left his wife (albeit with her blessing) to pursue his lifelong ambition of finding, painting, and cataloging every bird in North America. The book continues to trace Audubon's journey across America and his keen insight into birds and sadly their eventual extinction.

Reading through this book felt like reading a story, not a dry biography. The Audubon quotes demonstrated both his intelligence and his personality. The book also is full of photographs of the Audubons and Audubon's beautiful paintings. I also learned a lot about Audubon that I never knew, such as his early childhood and the fact that he drew mammals after he completed his book of birds. This was a fascinating read and one that I would recommend for middle-school and up. It contains a nice blend of science and history and would also make an excellent book for the homeschooling crowd!

These books were provided to me for free by Flying Eye Books and University of Nebraska Press respectively. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!

The Little Hippo and One Night, Far From Here

The Little Hippo is a children's book published by Prestel. When you think of Prestel, you don't normally think of kids books, but instead art or photography books. The illustrator of this book, Anja Klauss, based her illustrations on the ancient style of Egyptian art. This story, written by Geraldine Elschner, begins by telling about a time in Egypt when blue hippos populated the Nile River. The youngest one, called Little Hippo, became friends with a man named Antef. As quickly as we learn of their friendship, we learn that Antef has died and is placed inside a pyramid. Little Hippo decided to lay down beside him and slept for centuries. Eventually he was woken up by archaeologists. Little Hippo discovered that instead of growing, he had shrunk. Using his size, he escapes and embarks on a journey to find his family and friends. The rest of the book tells of his epic journey, which you'll have to read to see how it ends.

The colors on the page are bold and vibrant. They go from a beautiful blue, like the hippo on the cover, to a vibrant red that seems to set the page on fire. The hieroglyphics and Egyptian-style art make the whole book a work of art. The story is also cute, but subtly educational. Your children won't realize they are learning about ancient Egyptian culture, archaeology, artifacts, and art. If all Prestel kids books are this high of quality, then I plan on getting a few more and using them with my son as gentle introduction of art and other cultures. Five stars!

One Night, Far From Here is a 14" x 10.5" inch picture book that takes your children through various ecosystems at night. They move from an African Savannah to a Russian Taiga to the Amazon Rainforest to the ocean and finally end up in a North American Forest with a girl reading the very same book. Along the way, the words of the story points out various wildlife, native to these ecosystems. There are spider monkeys, giant squids, snow owls, and wild boars. What makes the book unique is the layout. Each region begins with two acetate (plastic) pages. The first page is mostly dark and reveals tiny creatures like birds and insects. The second acetate page illuminates more over the scene, showing both flora and fauna. Turning this page takes you to the paper page which brings the whole scene in view. At the end of the book is two-page spread, which labels all the animals you and your child could have potentially seen. This encourages you to recall the pages and go back and look through the book again (not that you need motivation to visit this book more than once). This is a book you and your child will visit time and time again, not for the words of the story but just the beautiful book. If you have a child who loves books (whether they can read yet or not), you will want to get them this treat for the eyes.

These books were provided to me for free by Prestel and Flying Eye Books in exchange for honest reviews. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!