Animals Nobody Loves  

By Seymour Simon

Time for another non-fiction mentor text review!

I love the photos and the no-nonsense, factual yet intriguing information that Seymour Simon gives readers on these fascinating, but unloved animals. It makes me wonder—Are these animals considered ‘unloved’ because of their looks or their actions—or both?

Book Talk

Seymour Simon—the king of informational books—has done it again with an engaging, close-up photos and intriguing text featuring twenty animals that are not considered your typical ‘warm fuzzy’ animals.

He teaches readers about the unusual habits and adaptations of these animals (to name of few): shark, bat, hyena, piranha, rat, cockroach, and rattlesnake. 

Simon’s goal with the book is to give readers enough information about these fascinating, yet unloved creatures, to hopefully change readers minds so that at least they will understand why the animals behave and look the way they do.

A sample of Simon’s informational writing:

“Cockroaches are insects that have lived on the Earth for more the 200 million years-far longer than human.  Like rats, cockroaches are found all over the world except in the coldest places.”

Wow- lots of good information in just a few sentences.

Kids will love this book!

Suggested Uses at a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Informational

Reading Workshops strategies:  Search for and Use Information, Connecting, Questioning

Summarizing

Writing Workshop genre: Informational Writing

Curricular Themes:  Science-Animal Adaptations

Seymour Simon’s website: http://www.seymoursimon.com/