Book Review: Marvellous Animal Homes by Jane Wilsher & Laurie Avon

A book review of a fun interactive children’s book teaching all about the different homes animals make in a fun and different way.

About Marvellous Animal Homes

Title: Marvellous Animal Homes
Author: Jane Wilsher
Illustrator: Laurie Avon
Publisher: What on Earth!
Genre: Children’s non-fiction, Activity, Animals
Book format reviewed: Hardback
Sweet Strawberries:

Description: Ever wondered what’s going on inside nests, dens, hives, burrows and other animal homes?
Deep underground, high up in the mountains and way down at the bottom of the sea, animals make extraordinary homes in surprising places and ingenious ways. Use the magic lens included with this book to see inside termite mounds and squirrel dreys, bat tents and beehives, bear dens and tarantula burrows.
Discover a whole world of MARVELLOUS ANIMAL HOMES.

*Free copy provided by publisher for review…

My review and thoughts on Marvellous Animal Homes

This is a fun children’s book teaching all about the different ways animals around the world live and nest, with a unique and fun twist. Have you ever thought about where different animals make their homes? Where certain birds put their nests, how gorillas sleep in special beds, or what happens inside a termite mound? Animals make their homes in lots of different places and ways and this book explains many of them while also giving you a chance to explore the homes they make. The hardback comes with thick matt pages of some lovely illustrations and text and a unique feature that lets kids explore the inside of some animal homes in a fun way.

©The Strawberry Post
©The Strawberry Post

The book explains all about the different homes different animals make, from different birds and their unique nests, to the burrows and nests hibernating creatures stay in over winter, the burrows many mammals make, the colonies of ants and termites, and more. Each double page talks about a different topic, such as the different landscapes around the world and the animals that live there, or focusing on a specific creature like gorillas, prairie dogs, termites, ect. and explaining all about their homes and some interesting facts along the way. Each page is filled with lots of fascinating information to discover and I was surprised by how many different animals this books covers and enjoyed finding out about some of the unique ways they build their homes (the tailorbird for example). The facts are given in small paragraphs of a sentence or two and with these text sections dotted around a large image on a double page, it makes it easier to take the information and easier reading for those that aren’t so keen on reading books.

©The Strawberry Post
©The Strawberry Post

Every image on the double page is so good. I love the way all the animals look in every picture and there’s plenty of them to spot. Each image is colourful and shows lots of detail of the area and creatures you can find there, whether mentioned in the text or not, and I do love the special feature which this book is focused on and that is the special magical lens to spot the inside of the animals’ homes. The front of the book has a small lens you can pull out from the front inside cover which is made of cardboard with a red see-through plastic in the centre. This red magical lens can be used to look at special sections of the book’s pages. Each page, while showing lots of animals and the colourful landscapes they live in, also has some unique reddish areas which are made of of red coloured patterns, including dots, swirls and stripes. These reddish areas have an unclear image drawn underneath them, but it’s difficult to see until you put the magical lens with its red film on top of this. This suddenly gets rid of the reddish patterns and lets you see the image drawn underneath in detail, making it feel like you are looking into a secret den and spotting what is inside.

©The Strawberry Post
©The Strawberry Post

I love how this magical lens works. Not only is the book itself a fun and interesting read visually, but it’s extra fun with all the little nests and hollows to spot on each page. It makes reading this book all the more interesting and exciting as there are things to see in some of the burrows and nests that you don’t at first realise are there including little cubs and birds or eggs. It’s a lovely addition to this book, making it so much more fun to read and I’m sure many kids will enjoy hours of fun spotting all the areas that have hidden images in them.

Overall this is a very fun children’s book all about animals and the different homes they make. The information is varied and there are plenty of things to learn that even as an adult I knew nothing about. The information is fascinating though, especially the pages that go into more details about animals like prarie dogs, gorillas and the leaf cutter ants. And the magical lens just makes it an extra fun and interractive read. A great book which I’m sure lots of kids will enjoy looking at again and again.