Animals in Camouflage
Author: Tildes, Phyllis Limbacher
Illustrator: Tildes, Phyllis Limbacher
Reading Level: Grade K-2
Tildes presents more riddles on animals, this time focusing on those that use camouflage in order to survive. Seven unusual animals hide from predators and prey in these pages: polar bear, white-tailed deer, horned owl, crab spider, Ceylon leaf insect, leafy sea dragon, and tree frog.Tildes gives clues and invites viewers to guess the name of the hidden animal, then provides a closer look at the animal, making the camouflaging details more apparent. This title will work well for group viewing. An afterword includes the names of the types of camouflage and additional information about the featured animals. Booklist - January 31, 2000 This brief, effective picture book demonstrates how animals manage to blend in with their surroundings. Each double-page spread features a short riddle, printed in extra large type, about an animal hidden somewhere in the picture on the opposite page. A turn of the page reveals a large illustration of the creature in question, accompanied by the name of the animal and a few facts. Covered (and then uncovered) are such animals as the polar bear, the crab spider, and the great horned owl. Two pages at the end of the book give a few more facts about each animal. The animals, hidden in well-rendered gouache paintings, are not easy to find (sometimes only a part of them is revealed), but children will still have fun looking and discovering how the creatures blend in with their surroundings. It all adds up to a fun package. The simple text is printed in extra-large type. Even children too young to read will enjoy guessing "What am I?" and searching among snow, leaves, blossoms, and seaweed to find a polar bear, leaf insect, great horned owl, crab spider, leafy sea dragon, white-tailed deer, and tree frog. The closing pages describe camouflage tactics and give another paragraph about each species. Simpler in text than Jim Arnosky's handsome I See Animals Hiding (1995) or Jennifer Owings Dewey's vivid Can You Find Me? (1994,both Scholastic), and definitely more basic than Joyce Powzyk's elegantly informative Animal Camouflage (Bradbury,1990;o.p.), Tildes's title deserves a place in quality collections of natural history.
