Hide-And-Seek Science: Animal Camouflage

by Emma Stevenson

Overview

This stunning book looks at how animals use camouflage in seven distinct ecosystems spanning the globe: swamp (Florida Everglades), desert (Africa's Sahara), rain forest (South America's Amazon), savanna (East Africa), deciduous forest (Europe), arctic (North America), and coral reef (Australia's Great Barrier Reef). For each habitat, a lush full-page spread is followed by a key that explains how each animal uses camouflage and where it can be found in the preceding spread.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823431878
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	08/31/2014
Series:	Hide-And-Seek Science
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	900L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Emma Stevenson is a graduate of University College Falmouth in Cornwall, England. Her debut illustrations for Eggs, by Marilyn Singer, were called "striking and nicely detailed" by Booklist. The Horn Book wrote, "Stevenson's beautiful field guide-like illustrations capture every nuance and detail." Emma Stevenson lives in Birmingham, England, but enjoys painting pictures of familiar as well as exotic habitats.

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2013
Illustrator Stevenson makes her debut as an author by taking readers through seven ecosystems and asking them to find animals hidden in each scene. “For animals,” she explains, hide-and-seek “isn’t just a game. It’s a matter of life and death.” Although it’s more a matter of pointing to the animals in Stevenson’s naturalistic gouache paintings than finding them (most are out in the open), it’s still no small feat, with the author challenging readers to locate more than 30 animals on most spreads; the final scene, set in a coral reef, boasts 83 animals—including the coral, of course. Stevenson’s paintings are reproduced on intervening pages, with each animal numbered; brief details about them are included, but not always enlightening (“Snow geese are white like snow”). The artwork is the main draw. Ages 6–10. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"a Where's Waldo?-like package with a purpose . . . Careful gouache illustrations validate the information in detail and scale."—The Horn Book
 
"Stevenson's engrossing way of hiding animals makes the book as much art as science. . . . There are plenty of animal camouflage books out there, but the gouache paintings—vibrant or muted depending on the ecosystem – combined with the inclusion of so many animals, along with their descriptions, makes this stick out from the pack."—Booklist
 
"Amazingly lifelike details rendered in gouache bring the flora and fauna of each habitat to life"—Kirkus Reviews
 
"The stunning gouache illustrations are magical and enhance this crowd-pleasing introduction to various environments and their wildlife."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

10/01/2013
Gr 2–5—Seven ecosystems and their wildlife are cleverly introduced in this gorgeously illustrated book. The biomes include a swamp, a desert, a rain forest, a savanna, a deciduous forest, a tundra, and a coral reef. Creatures include a manatee, a jerboa, a jaguar, a zebra, a stoat, an orca, and a jellyfish. The 293 animals are hidden (some more than others) on one spread, and children are enouraged to locate them. The following spread shows the same picture, but the animals are numbered and a brief paragraph explains their camouflage. Kids will learn, for example, that the camel is sand colored to match its desert locale. The stunning gouache illustrations are magical and enhance this crowd-pleasing introduction to various environments and their wildlife.—Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

2013-09-15
Stevenson, in her authorial debut, presents readers with seven gorgeous habitats and the 293 animals hiding within them, inviting children to count each animal and try to find them all. Amazingly lifelike details rendered in gouache bring the flora and fauna of each habitat to life; colors and sizes, if not proximity, imitate the real world. Beginning in the swamp, Stevenson takes readers to the desert, a rain forest, the savanna, a deciduous forest, an Arctic scene (labeled "Hide-and-Seek in the Snow") and a coral reef. Full-bleed double-page spreads stretch across the gutter, the only text the header and a question: "Can you find 40 animals?" A turn of the page reveals the same scene, condensed, the margins presenting information about the habitat and each animal pictured. Numbers on the scene make it easy to match the animals with their descriptions. However, it's also easy to spot the animals--none are truly using their abilities to camouflage themselves in the scenery, taking much of the fun, as well as the apparent point, from the book. While a brief introduction describes what camouflage is and why it is important, readers will see no evidence of it within the scenes. For a solid explanation of camouflage, stick with Carolyn Otto and Megan Lloyd's What Color is Camouflage? (1996), and for a story that incorporates it, try Narelle Oliver's Twilight Hunt: A Seek-and-Find Book (2007). (Informational picture book. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews