This book has a wonderful concept: to present life-size photography of a variety of zoo animals to give children a proper idea of the scale. Some animals we see full-bodied photography, but with others that are too big, we see a portion of them (like part of the head of an elephant). In order to accomplish this, the book is oversized, measuring approximately 10x14 inches, and some sections have fold out pages to allow you to see things like a giraffe's entire head with its tongue sticking out.
The animals covered in this book are the aardvark, armadillo, anteater, camel, capybara, elephant, giant panda, giraffe, gorilla, hedgehog, koala, meerkat, prairie dog, red panda, rhino, sea lion, sloth, tapir, tiger, and zebra. In addition to photography, there are little factoids for each animal. For example, for the armadillo, we learn that only the three-banded kind can roll into a ball. The long hair growin on its belly is pointed out, as well as the fact that its head and tail fit together like a puzzle.
The main drawback to this book would be that it is oversized with foldout pages. This is not a book to just hand to a younger child. The age range cited is 4-8, and this is the right group to be interested (and possibly up a bit higher too), but many of them will end up hopelessly bending the fold-up pages. This book needs to be looked at with an adult managing it or only given to older children that are very careful. Still, with careful supervision, this is a wonderful book for preschoolers and elementary-aged children.