Emu

Reviewed by: Cidney Mayes - Memorial Middle School, South Portland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 13, 2016

Review

Australian author and illustrator duo Claire Saxby and Graham Byrne team up again to bring this informative book about emus to life. In eye-catching illustrations, an emu father is depicted safeguarding his clutch of eggs (as the mothers leave after laying their eggs), watching his chicks hatch, and protecting his baby chicks from predators. Accompanying these illustrations are informative paragraphs about the life-cycle and rearing habits of emus.

This book would do wonderfully in a classroom setting for either read-alouds or independent projects. With features at the back of book such as a brief about section, and index, and a short explanation of what an index is; this title could also be used to teach about different parts of a nonfiction book. The book also utilizes the popular format of two sets of text per page spread, using differentiated reading levels for each paragraph and different fonts. Both fonts are easy to read, and the reader will not get bogged down in reading both paragraphs. The illustrations in this book, digital renders with ink overlays, create a sense of place that represents the Australian outback where these birds reside.

Overall Book Score: very good