Hello, friends! Our book today is Animal Architects, written by Amy Cherrix and illustrated by Chris Sasaki, a look at some remarkable creatures and their building skills.

Have you ever heard of an animal building a trapdoor? Or body armor? Or a 30-foot skyscraper? If not, then you’ve not met the trapdoor spider, the carrier snail, or the termite! This beautiful, fact-filled nonfiction picture book spotlights eleven species in total, each with their own unique talent at crafting and construction. Readers can learn about beaver dams, prairie dog towns, gentoo penguin rock nests, and more.

Awesome information with a few hiccups. Cherrix’s text is engaging and fun, and provides some genuinely fascinating facts about the featured creatures. Sasaki’s art is simply gorgeous, using bold brushstrokes and color schemes to create incredibly compelling nature scenes. However, the layout can be mildly confusing – each animal’s profile takes place over the course of a pair of two-page spreads, without any notable transitioning or segueing between them. This often creates a feeling of disorientation when moving from one critter to the next. Another review of this book also mentioned some factual errors in the section on honeybees, which is worth noting, especially in a nonfiction title. Otherwise, the length was fine for an elementary story time, and JJ did earnestly enjoy several of the animal’s talents and the artwork that represented them. Overall, this is an entertaining, visually striking, yet slightly flawed title; we still think it’s worth a look, especially for animal lovers. Baby Bookworm approved.

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)