Information Graphics: Animal Kingdom

by Simon Rogers, Nicholas Blechman (Illustrator)

Overview

The first in a visually stunning series, Information Graphics: Animal Kingdom shows just how interesting and humorous scientific information can be. Complex facts about the animal kingdom are reinterpreted as stylish information graphics that astonish, amuse, and inform, and tabbed chapters make information fast to find. Researched by the Guardian’s Datablog founder and illustrated by the award-winning designer Nicholas Blechman, this is a book of the highest pedigree.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763671228
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/08/2014
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Simon Rogers is the founding editor of the Guardian’s Datablog and has won numerous awards for his work, including a Royal Statistical Society’s award of excellence in 2012.

Nicholas Blechman is an internationally recognized illustrator, designer, and art director. His award-winning illustrations have appeared in GQ, Travel + Leisure, Wired, and the New Yorker. He is currently the art director of the New York Times Book Review.

Editorial Reviews

02/10/2014
Illustrator/designer Blechman’s crisp, bold graphics are sure to grab eyeballs in this first book in a series that takes a visual approach to sharing information. Tabs help readers flip between eight chapters devoted to animal species, families, habitats, predators, and more; dogs get their own chapter, which includes a profile view of a canine skeleton, an icon-based guide to dogs’ body language, and simplified portraits of a dozen breeds. While Blechman’s illustrations are extremely eye-catching, many are just that—illustrations. Diagrams that show animals’ comparative speeds, brain sizes, or number of teeth (represented by toothbrushes of increasing length) are clear as can be, but most of the stylish and stylized images still rely on Rogers’s text to convey the nitty-gritty details of the animals’ abilities, habits, and characteristics. That won’t stop animal-loving readers from diving in, though. Ages 6–9. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Illustrator/designer Blechman’s crisp, bold graphics are sure to grab eyeballs in this first book in a series that takes a visual approach to sharing information. Tabs help readers flip between eight chapters devoted to animal species, families, habitats, predators, and more...
—Publishers Weekly

Readers will be attracted to the cover of this book, with its uniquely designed images set against a vibrant, green background. ... Almost all the pages offer intriguing facts and cartoonish illustrations (one arresting spread of red, black, and green features self-defense techniques).
—School Library Journal

This book is a treasure trove of fascinating animal facts that breaks down complex scientific information into colorful and engaging data visualizations. Want to compare the weight of different animals' brains? Learn the names of hybrid animals? You can! This book has it all and is perfect for elementary school students.
—The Huffington Post

From the Publisher

04/01/2014
Gr 4 Up—Readers will be attracted to thecover of this book, with its uniquely designed images set against a vibrant, green background. Inside, they will find a range of very general information about the animal kingdom. The table of contents lists eight chapters with brightly colored chapter tabs ("Species," "Senses," "Record Breakers," etc.). Almost all the pages offer intriguing facts and cartoonish illustrations (one arresting spread of red, black, and green features self-defense techniques), but no photos are included. Actual size proportions are often ignored in these illustrations (for instance, on one page, a chameleon is almost as large as a whale). Students will find it challenging to compare and contrast animals because the material is so broad; text fonts are extremely small, owing to the need to fit a large amount of information on each page; the vocabulary is geared toward adults; and the book lacks both a glossary and index. Artistically, this title is visually pleasing, and children will enjoy it for the fun factor, but it should not be considered for purchase as a science reference.—Caroline Geck, Camden Street School Library, Newark, NJ

School Library Journal

2014-01-15
With scattered exceptions, the trendy "infographics" approach stops at the title in this haphazard ramble past animal types and extremes. The book is printed on stiff stock and features edge tabs bearing icons to denote each section's subject—not always well-chosen ones: Dog faces mark both the chapter on dogs and one on animal senses in general. The coverage begins with Darwin and ends abruptly (sans index or other backmatter) with a highly select gallery of canine breeds. In between, it offers equally select surveys of animal habitats, physical characteristics, family life, defense mechanisms and other topics. The writing sometimes reads like a bad translation: "A hippo can extend its mouth to 180 degrees." The snippets of text are placed around or within intensely hued images that are mostly solid, stylized animal silhouettes, but unlike the ingeniously designed graphics in Margaret Hynes and Andy Crisp's Picture This! Animals (2014), here the art is seldom arranged or scaled to impart information in a visual way. Aside from, for instance, a toothbrush "graph" comparing the numbers of various creatures' teeth or silhouettes running around a marked speed gauge, Blechman's illustrations just place animals in decorative groupings or next to conventional lists and bar graphs. Flashy at first glance, routine at second and subsequent looks. (Nonfiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews