Life-Size Zoo

Title: Life-Size Zoo
Author: Teruyuki Komiya
Photographer: Toyofumi Fukuda
Reading Level: All Ages
Hard Cover: 47 pages
Publisher: Seven Footer Press

(Picture courtesy Amazon.com)


Talking about non-fiction picture books, we have read many about animals. But this book captured our interest because the book is different from page one. That is right! The contents page is arranged as a map to a zoo. Every animal enclosure had the name of the animal and the page of the book that animal appears on.

The book as is larger than a standard book and measures to be 14.5 inches long and 10.5 inches wide. When you open the book, you get double the size. On each of these double pages you find a part of an animal, just the face of a panda, the eyes of the elephant or a tiger's face frozen right in the middle of a majestic ROARRRRR. Giraffe being special, gets a triple spread, showcasing its entire face with its curly tongue over a 14.5 inch long X 38 inch wide page! What you see is the actual life size of a part the animal. Not even once you think that you are seeing an incomplete picture. Instead it has the exact opposite effect, you end up wondering about the actual size of the animal. The photos are so sharp and detailed that you can even see the rough bumps on the tiger's tongue.

They have a small section for each animal, with interesting trivia about each animal.

Did you know that a tiger has black lips?
Did you know that one can tell the type of a zebra by its stripes?
Did you know that a three band armadillo can roll up in to a perfect ball?
Did you know that a baby camel is not born with hump?
Did you know that a rhino's horn is just a bundle of hair?
Did you.....

Okay, you get the idea now :)