Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Meet the Meerkat



Meet the Meerkat
by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne. Charlesbridge. 2007

When I am clicking though the television channels ("Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on") I confess I will screech to a halt to watch Meerkat Manor which is why I wanted to take a look at this new book. The meerkat facts are explained in a question-answer format.

Little Meerkat,
what do you eat?

I eat insects, spiders, and scorpians.
I smell them with my nose.
Then I dig them up with my feet.
what do you eat?
I was struck by how well the format of the book lends itself to the Big 6 research model Step 1 which begins by listing the questions that need answers during the research process. What animals eat, where they live, what they look like are the staples of young researchers' animal reports. The book itself could be a model for the product or Step 5.

Patricia Wynnes illustrations capture the expressive faces of the meerkats and their movements. I would absolutely add this book to my 599.74 section.

2 comments:

Tricia said...

Hi Camille,
My son and I have been watching Flower and her gang from the beginning, so we're crazy for meerkat books. For Christmas I gave William these two titles:
Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett. We did purchase this through the UK Amazon site, but it was so worth it. a meerkat strikes out on his own to visit other members of his family (think weasel family) and writes postcards about his adventures. It's fiction, but there is some good science in it.
Meerkat's Safari by Claudia Graziano. This is a fun guess the animal book with a safari led by a meerkat.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to look for it.

Camille said...

I searched some of the "usual" nonfiction animal books series and was surprised that there were not more 'meerkat' books out there.

I know some of the fun of Meerkat Manor for me is hearing Sean Astin's narration.