A-Z of endangered animals by Jennifer Cossins

Lothian, 2017. ISBN 9780734417954
(Age: primary) Recommended. Animals, Endangered animals. Artist and writer Cossins, has brought her skills together to present this book about some of the world's endangered animals. Each double page represents one of the animals in danger, in alphabetical order from Amir tiger to Zebra duiker. On one side is a brief outline of the animal giving readers information about their endangered status, how many are left in the world, what their characteristics are, why they are endangered and several interesting facts.
M is for Mandrill for example, and we learn that there are only 3000 left in the wild. They live in equatorial jungles in Central Africa and eat a variety of food. Their habitat is under threat but the biggest threat today is the search for bush meat. On the right hand side of the page is an illustration of the animal.
Children will love using this book as an information book but I can also imagine children reading it from cover to cover. The information is precise and concise, and paired with the illustrations gives a fact file about the animal, enough for most younger students but encouraging others to search further. To this end, Cossins gives websites for the readers' research and an outline of what the words used in the book mean: endangered, threatened and extinct for example.
Fran Knight