Nonfiction Monday: National Geographic Readers

July 25, 2011

I'll admit right off the bat, that I'm a member of the National Geographic Society and as such tend to really like the stuff they produce. But the fact is that a lot of the books they produce are very well done, both in terms of writing and photography/illustration. Plus, their books usually include maps and I love a good map. Another one of my pet peeves is when a story involves a journey of a some kind and their is no map to help organize all the different places. After I read the Lord of the Rings the first time, I went out and found a map, it was just to confusing otherwise.

Sea Turtles (National Geographic Readers)
by Laura Marsh
National Geographic, 2011.
Grades 1-3
Reviewed from purchased copy.

This book gives general information about sea turtles, where and how they live, the different types of turtles, and why they are endangered. I confess, I didn't really think that I would learn anything new from this book, after all it is for beginning readers, but I did learn some cool new things. For example, the leatherback turtle is not only the biggest sea turtle species (up to 7 feet long), but it doesn't have a hard shell, just rubbery skin with small bones underneath. Here are some of the things that I loved about this book:

The book starts with a riddle, a perfect way to introduce the book (you'll need to hide the cover to do this).
There are fun riddles/jokes throughout the book (kids love riddles and jokes).
The bright, clear illustrations match the text perfectly.
The captions that identify the kind of turtle in each photograph.
The glossary that defines key words and shows a picture to help the reader understand each term.
A fill-in-the-blank paragraph at the end that helps students use the new vocabulary.

I highly recommend this book and others in the series for students who love animals, jokes, and cool facts to share. Here are some other titles in the series: