My four year old and I LOVED this colorful, detailed, and educational title! I’m excited to order it to hold in my hands.

4.5 stars

~ Thanks to NetGalley and Fox Chapel Publishing / Happy Fox Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review ~

It makes me sad that I don't feel like I can round this up to a full 5 stars, because I think that a lot of effort has gone into this book to make it special. The illustrations are incredible, and I think if you've got a kid who has a thirst for knowledge, especially for marine life or anything to do with the ocean, then this is an easy sell. It's also useful for adults! I actually had no idea that seahorses didn't have stomachs, and I'm still trying to process that fact hours later. The one thing complicating my review of "Coral Reef" is that the entertainment level isn't quite level with the information load, which might stop kids under the age of 6 from being fully engaged with it unless they are already interested in the topic. I'd usually say that the illustrations might be enough to keep them entertained, but that's where another problem arises: the drawing style and board book format are what I would expect to be aimed at 3-5 year olds, which might be offputting to the older kids that the writing is more suited for.
This confusion of target demographic aside, I do really like this book, and I would recommend parents look at it, especially if their children are huge water babies like I once was.


Summary
Recommended age range: 6-8
Pros: adorable, vibrant illustrations; very informative; interesting for both adults and children
Cons: info heavy without being quite entertaining enough to balance it properly

Such a cute little book introducing kids to different animals that call the reef home or visit it for one reason or another. Just a quick little book about animals that live in the water.

Although the book is filled with lots of great information about the inhabitants of the Coral Reef it might go over the heads of little ones. I would recommend the book for elementary aged children. It could be used in conjugation with photographs of the coral reefs.

This book would have deserved a much better review had it not contained an overwhelming amount of both grammatical and spelling mistakes--especially considering this title would be a learning resource for children. The amount of mistakes makes it difficult to trust that the information in this book is accurate. However, the visuals were strong, (aside from the dolphin on the last page sucking on a human baby bottle.) I'm disappointed, to say the least.

Coral Reef written by Radka Piro and illustrated by Martin Sojdr draws you in with the vibrant colors of the illustrations. However, the written words appear to be somewhat advanced for a picture/boardbook. Overall, the book could benefit from organizational expertise.

This was such a great educational book for kids (and adults haha). It is filled with beautiful colourful illustrations accompanied by interesting and relevant facts about coral reefs and all the fish and sea life that live among it. My daughter loved pointing to the different sea life and shouting "look - an octopus" - then we could learn something about it together. This is a cute book for toddlers to help identify animals and great for older kids who want to learn more about their favourite sea animals as well.

The bright and vibrant illustrations are for everyone who can see, and the ample information to go with them is good for everyone who is not a marine biologist from 8 to 80! The information is not the preschool simplistic variety, but for real learning and is a fantastic introduction to everything to do with coral reefs. I even learned how coral reproduce!
It's one of those books you can go back to over and over again!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook from Fox Chapel Publishing/Happy Fox Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This is a great book to get children acquainted under the sea and with it's creatures. The only constructive criticism I would give is sometimes the illustrations seem to jumbled and based on what each page is talking about I would say make that the main focus on the page instead of focusing on EVERYTHING on the page being illustrated. Some of the pages Im just feeling really scattered by looking at because it feels like the focus needs to be narrowed down. I dont know if this is purely esthetical or it would make more sense based from a logical stand point. I hope I am explaining myself well here? Not sure if I am...? Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A beautifully illustrated book with a lovely colour palette. This non fiction book explains a coral reef brimming with life. It would suit over 5s. Nicely done.

This book is wonderful. It is full of bright and vibrant illustrations and amazing facts.
We enjoyed reading this book as a family and myself, my husband and our 4 year old son all learnt something.
I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGally and the publisher for my ARC.

Beautifully illustrated, colourful and informative.

So much information in this book, even I learnt things about the coral reef and its inhabitants.

Great book for kids although when I picked it up I thought it would be for younger children as it's a board book.
I would definitely recommend it for children 6+ or younger if they are fans of the creature within the ocean and understand some more technical words.

Super cute book for kids! It’s interesting enough to peek their attention and it’s really colorful and eye-catching as well.

As an educator, I appreciate the author’s choice to use real language when describing the marine ecosystem of coral reefs. This book is colourful and comprehensive and amazing to further children’s interest in sea life and animals.

I loved the illustrations, but I would have loved to see some real life pictures on the last page!

Thank you Radka Píro, Happy Fox Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of Coral Reef in exchange for an honest review.

I just have to add that, this being my first book by the author, I would love to know the right order of their name, as I think it’s so important to honour someone’s moniker. The cover lists it as Radka Píro. But on NetGalley and Goodreads it’s listed as Piro Radka. If I used the wrong order in my review, I apologize to the author.

#CoralReef #NetGalley

4.5/ 5 stars

This is such a cute and informative book for kids.

The illustrations are stunning. And it is such a fantastic introduction to everything to do with coral reefs.

The book looks at so many underwater creatures (such as clownfish, porcupinefish, butterfly fish, lionfish, dolphins and sea turtles).

I really enjoyed this book.

Illustrations were very well done with lots of bright colours to make the book eye catching. Very informative, educatiknal text and great incorporation of the text boxes unto the illustration. I would recommend this for a child ages 7+.

A colorful and education book about coral reefs. Covers many different fish and sea life in an informative and visually appealing way.

I loved this book! BEAUTIFUL illustrations, bright and fun!

I loved that a book so pretty could be so filled with information! My son loved the pictures, he will be three on the 18th and he was unable to focus on the entire book, but I liked the educational aspect of this beautiful-looking book!

The only reason that I am giving it a 4-star rating is that this is not the normal definition of "board book" for me. When I hear "board book," I see minimal words, for a younger child.

The illustrations in this book are beautiful! I loved all of the pictures and it is so colorful! This book was also very informative about coral reefs and the sea. I would only recommend this book to students who love the sea and sea animals.

Review: An educational board book for children that offers layers of coral reef in varying cut outs. Different animals like fish, eel, octopus, snake, sea horse, and more are featured within the layers and offer fun facts about each one. Bright and colorful graphics are sure to hold the attention of the little ones, while the educational facts are great for a wide range of ages. The last set of pages offer some additional factoids relating to the reef and the animals within. I recommend this book as an important glimpse into our oceanic world.

Note: I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is my own.