Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 10, 2018

Review

Davies and Sutton team up once again (Tiny Creatures, 2014) to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth. The focus here is on the vast biodiversity on the planet Earth. Davies's clear and simple prose tells about the many creatures and plants inhabiting the planet, and Sutton's well-drawn illustrations show this diversity. Sutton's amazing illustrations crowd the pages; readers will pour over them. And this style of crowding the page is a fantastic technique to show how many animals we know about and how many we have let go extinct. And it makes the warning about the danger of human carelessness due to pollution, clear cutting, over-fishing all the more stark when she takes away the animals and plants that have been lushly shown on each page. The message of this book is timely, necessary, and so well-crafted that a reader of any age can understand the immediacy needed to protect our world so that many does not dwindle down to one. A fantastic book for use in a biology, art, or ecology class, or for reading aloud. Recommend for Cream.

Overall Book Score: excellent