Who Lives Here? Polar Animals - Hardcover

Deborah Hodge is a former educational consultant and curriculum designer and the author of the Kids Can Press Wildlife series. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Realistic illustrations of polar animals fill the pages of this small, square title in the Who Lives Here? series. Each double-page spread introduces a new creature—the arctic fox, the emperor penguin—and matches pictures of varying size to small snippets of text that offer basic facts about how the animal lives in its frozen homeland. Not all of the definitions are clear; it’s never explained where polar regions are on the globe, for example, or what makes tundra unique. The pictures that highlight the specifics of adaptation, such as a close-up of a penguin’s tightly knit feathers or a cross section of a beluga’s blubber, are neatly presented, and the easily accessed facts and attractive pictures make this a good supplement for units on the North and South Poles. Pair this with Aaron Frisch’s Tundra, reviewed below, for more coverage of the Arctic environment where many of these featured animals make their homes. Preschool-Grade 1. --Gillian Engberg