100 Things You Should Know About Endangered Animals, For Kids

100 Things You Should Know About Endangered Animals by Miles Kelly is one of our favorite books about animals. From the time my daughter was old enough to understand (about 3) I started teaching her about how certain animals are threatened and why. Being an animal lover, she was very interested and eager to learn. I was afraid that this book might be a little too old for her but in the end it was perfect.

The book starts at the very beginning, with dinosaurs, and continues on to other species that are now extinct. It explains how animals are kept track of so that we can tell how many of each are left and what is happening to them. It talks about the different ratings for endangered species, ie: NT- near threatened, CR- critically endangered, EW- extinct in the wild.

There are descriptions and pictures of all the animals that are on the endangered list. It explains why they are there with examples of things that people do that cause the animals harm. There are little factoids, quizzes and activities scattered throughout the book.

It is not all doom and gloom though, there is also information on species that have already been saved from extinction as well as species that were thought to be extinct but were found not to be several years later.

While the book is aimed at children about 8 and up I have been reading it to my five year old since she was three and she still refers to it often. It is written in short paragraphs to hold a child's' attention and is easy to understand without being over simplified. As an adult even I have found it very informative and well put together.

The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that there are four or five photographs of animals that had been killed that I didn't enjoy seeing although they didn't seem to bother my daughter, she mostly just curious about them. At least they weren't overly graphic and they were contained within four pages of the book.

I would absolutely recommend 100 Things You Should Know About Endangered Animals to anyone wanting to teach their child about which animals are threatened and why.