New Zealand's Endangered Dolphins

The stunning illustration on the front cover will immediately capture the attention of potential readers, and throughout the book the artwork continues to impress.  Even a labelled diagram is made to look appealing as well as informative.

The layout of the pages ensures that they look attractive with text that is not too wordy, and in a font that is large enough to seem achievable for younger readers.  However, children may need some assistance with the relevant technical words that appear throughout and many adults would certainly relish sharing this book with youngsters as they will enjoy it themselves, too.  Each double-page spread features a bubble with a fact in it, and I can imagine some readers eager to find out what is said in each of these.

The book has a contents page, but no index.  However, the last page contains a 'Dolphin Dictionary' glossary.  It would have been helpful if the words and phrases featured here were printed in bold text throughout the book so that readers would know that an explanation could be found at the back.  This page also details 3 books and 3 websites for those readers wanting to find further information.

I was a little surprised on page 10 when readers were encouraged to send a water sample to the Department of Conservation to find out which type of dolphin they had seen.  

This is a beautiful book to share with individuals or with a class.  I'm sure everyone, including the teacher, will be able to learn something from it.