Reptile by colin mccarthy

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

tOK I know these are supposed to be kid books but they are awesome! Great pictures and just enough text to make you want to learn more. Great choices for a beginning reader or to start an older reader out in a new area. Every time I pick one of these up and read it I learn new things. Highly Recommended

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Foolness

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Stuff I learned: viviparous = (adj) giving birth to live young; plastron (bottom) and carapace (top) are the two parts of a turtle shell; Jacobson's Organ is an organ in snakes and lizards near the front of their mouth that "smells" and "tastes" chemical particles in the air; lizards' tails can only be broken off at the vertebrae - they can not be broken off over and over again in the same spot unless it is farther up the lizard's body; there are four orders of reptiles: turtles and tortoises, crocodiles and alligators, snakes and lizards, and tuataras (2 species found in New Zealand); "prehensile" means it can grasp - it is usually used to describe a tail (like a lizard or monkey); I wish there were more on venomous snakes.

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Chibijuanella

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

October 2019 - Ben and I browsed our way through this over several nights. He's really fascinated with lizards, especially.

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michhoffman

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

a great resource for children, bold and striking pictures, and well researched information

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poznati

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This is a “new edition with wall chart” 2023 version of the “Reptile” book from the DK Eyewitness range of books. In it you can “uncover the lives of lizards, the tactics of tortoises, and the secrets of snakes”.

It starts with a section on What is a reptile / What is not a reptile which is a good place to start, differentiating amphibians from reptiles. It is very Interesting along the way, especially with the many high-quality colour photos that supplement the book, my favourite two photos being that of the world’s smallest known reptile, the nano-chameleon from Madagascar which is around 22mm and is shown on a person’s finger/thumb for context (although the photo is rather disappointedly repeated later in the book although the other photos do feature just once each I believe) and a photo of a “Florida worm lizard” which looks exactly like a worm.

As well as the photos there is plenty of textual content covering everything you’d expect and want. There are plenty of good facts within also, like “prehistoric turtles could be as big as a car”, and “the tip of the chameleon’s tongue accelerates up to five times faster than a fighter jet.”

Of course, it ends on a sobering note: “Over 20 per cent of reptiles are threatened with extinction. They face many threats, including hunting and habitat loss, which is especially harmful for reptiles who only live on certain islands and have nowhere else to go.” The book includes a photo of Lonesome George, the last ever Pinta Island tortoise to show at least one now extinct species.

Overall, a quality, educational and well-presented book. 5-stars.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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