About This Book
Reach for this book when your toddler is in a high-energy phase of discovery and needs a grounding, visually-rich experience to focus their curiosity. It serves as a gentle introduction to the natural world, using high-quality photography to bridge the gap between a child's world and the wider animal kingdom. Through large-scale images and simple facts, it fosters a sense of wonder and respect for living things. This nonfiction guide introduces the names, habitats, and behaviors of baby animals from around the globe. The book emphasizes the bond between parents and offspring, making it a soothing choice for quiet time or bedtime. Designed for the shortest of attention spans, it uses DK's signature clean layout to build vocabulary and scientific interest in children aged 1 to 5. It is a reliable choice for parents wanting to encourage empathy and observational skills through a lens of natural beauty.
What Parents Should Know
Sensitive Topics
The book remains entirely upbeat and secular. It avoids the harsher realities of the animal kingdom, such as predation or habitat loss, focusing strictly on the nurturing and developmental stages of life.
Ideal Reader
A three-year-old who is obsessed with 'matching' things. This child loves identifying the 'mommy' and 'baby' versions of animals and is starting to ask 'what is that?' about everything in nature.
Parent Prep
This book can be read cold. Parents of very young toddlers may want to focus only on the pictures and animal names, skipping the longer text blurbs until the child's attention span develops. A parent might pick this up after seeing their child show kindness to a pet, or conversely, after a child expresses a fear of animals and needs a safe, non-threatening way to observe them.
