Member Reviews

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. An excellent kids' nonfiction book about how different animals see the world.

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Whoโ€™s Looking? : How Animals See the World. By Carol Matas, Illustrator: Cornelia Li. 2022. Oraca Book Publishers (ARC eBook).

I lovely book that is very informative with wonderfully unique illustrations that help readers understand how animals see differently from each other. The blurry-eyed ant, panoramic goat, 360 degrees dragonfly, eagle vision and many more interesting facts and colorful depictions.

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I love the concept of this book! It is so interesting to learn and understand how different creatures see the world. There were points that I wish more information was given about exactly how some of the creatures see. I also wish some of the pictures depicted the differences in vision a little better. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book.

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A little girl and her baby sister are hiking through the forest. Along the hike, the girl explains to her sister how different animals see things.

Baby humans only see in gray and then color later on bright colors.
Owls have 3 eyelids.
Eagles have the best eyesight of any animal on Earth.
Rabbits have close to 360 degree vision.
Goatโ€™s pupils are square.

Such a unique and informative picture book with lush illustrations. Young and old will find new insights in this beautifully fascinating nonfiction picture book.

And the wonderful thing is, it takes more than one set of eyes to get the full picture.

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This was such an amazing, fun and educational book for kids! I am sure most kids do but know that animals and people see differently, so this is a great concept for a children's book. The illustrations are really vibrant and beautiful, and my three year old loved them. Overall, a great book about sight, science and different perspectives! This is definitely a book I would purchase for my classroom and my child.

๐™๐™๐™–๐™ฃ๐™  ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช Orca Book Publishers for a digital copy of this book! This book was published 4/12/22.

๐Ÿ’™ Mommy (@๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ.๐›๐จ๐จ๐ค๐ฆ๐จ๐ฆ) and Ronan (@๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ๐›๐จ๐จ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐) approved โœ…

๐‘ป๐’‰๐’Š๐’” ๐’“๐’†๐’—๐’Š๐’†๐’˜ ๐’˜๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’‘๐’๐’”๐’•๐’†๐’… ๐’๐’ ๐‘ฐ๐’๐’”๐’•๐’‚๐’ˆ๐’“๐’‚๐’Ž ๐’”๐’๐’๐’ ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐‘จ๐’Ž๐’‚๐’›๐’๐’ ๐’๐’ ๐’‘๐’–๐’ƒ๐’๐’Š๐’„๐’‚๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’…๐’‚๐’š!

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What a cool concept! Kids will be fascinated at the idea that various people and animals see the world differently and will be very interested in experiencing the difference for themselves. This could be a great springboard to conversations and further learning about various kids of animals.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and include lots of interesting details. This would probably be best as a small-group or one-on-one read so kids can look closely at the illustrations and take their time with them. This would be a fantastic addition to pre-K and elementary school and classroom libraries!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

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The conversational text follows a young girl and her younger sister as they encounter wildlife. The illustrations are bright, attractive, and informative, showing a possible field of vision for the animal being discussed.

In 32 pages, the narrator gives an overview to get children started thinking about the eyes of creatures like an ant, a dragonfly, a beaver, and a wolf (and more)!

See illustrated examples of the way different animals view the world--more colors, fewer colors, or just shades of white, gray, and black. Which animal sees the best? What can a human baby see? Blurry or sharp, straight ahead, or all the way around, where does their vision reach?

This is one of the better beginner books because of the field-of-view illustrations. It's a great nature, science, discovery, picture book for ages 3-5, and any curious age!

4/5 Stars

Thanks to Orca Book Publishers and NetGalley for the free preview of this ebook pdf; the review is voluntary.

#WhosLooking #CarolMatas #CorneliaLi
#OrcaBookPublishers #NetGalley

#ChildrensNonfiction #PictureBook #Science #OutdoorsNature #ChildrensBiologyBooks
#ChildrensAnatomyBooks #ChildrensCountryLifeBooks

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This book describes the eyesight of many animals. Short text accompanies detailed photos which brings the content to life. So engaging! I could see children asking a variety of questions while reading this book and wanting to explore more animals after the last page is read. A must purchase for your library's non-fiction collection!

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This beautiful and detailed picture book gives readers the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a variety of living beings such as whales, ants and people with glasses. The illustrations feature a field of vision that is different from the outside of the vision, demonstrating the colours, vibrancy, and precision of different animal's vision. There is also information about adaptations related to these animals such as being able to see prey or distinguish between food or other objects. I would recommend this book for families and teachers of children in the age 6-10 range. As a grade 3 teacher I could definitely see using this book in my study on animal adaptations and habitats in science. Outside of that, I think this would just be a really neat book for kids to enjoy! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book!

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Thanks to Netgalley and Orca Books for a free digital copy.

This is a fantastic book about the science of sight, animals, and perspective. The illustrations are stunning and this is a great read for families at home, or for a classroom setting.

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Whoโ€™s Looking: How Animals See the World, written by Carol Matas and illustrated by Cornelia Li is a solid if not fully successful exploration of animal eyesight. The book follows a young girl and her baby sister from the youngest as an infant to a walking toddler as they explore the outdoors.

The first panel introduces a babyโ€™s eyesight with the tagline โ€œIf you were a little baby, everything could look like thisโ€ and then explains how babies see: hey can see you clearly only if you are close to them โ€ฆ At first, they see mostly in greys โ€ฆ โ€œThe illustration, meanwhile, uses two white lines to demarcate the visual range of a baby and has that segment of the panel in grey as opposed to the colors outside the marked visual range. The second page offers up the big sisterโ€™s eyesight, with a wider, more colorful range of vision.

From that point on, the tagline โ€œIf you were a [animal name], everything could look like thisโ€ is repeated for each succeeding page. Animals covered are, in order: ants, goats, dragonflies, robins, fish, whales, eagles, mice, owls, rabbits, beavers, and wolves. The language is age-appropriate, clear, and easy to follow, though not particularly lyrical. The information is often interesting and well conveyed, though a few times I wished for either more specificity or a different animal where the author could be more specific, as when fish are described this way: โ€œDifferent fish have different ways of seeing. Some see color and some do not . . . And donโ€™t forget that seeing underwater is different from seeing things on land.โ€ I would rather we got the general description then a specific species, and some explanation of just how seeing underwater is different. Those instances were rare though.

The artwork is colorful and engaging throughout, lively, bright, vivid. The two lines do a nice job of showing the angle/range of vision, though itโ€™s a little harder to discern when the range is greater than 180 degrees and sometimes itโ€™s not quite clear how distinctive it is compared to humans. For the eagle, for instance, we get a clear sense of the spatial range, but not the distance acuity that is discussed. Some way of showing what a mouse would look like to us (or not look like given our poor distance vision in comparison) versus an eagle.

Overall, despite a few minor issues as noted, itโ€™s a solidly informative book and an interesting topic that will pique the curiosity of many a child.

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I am not shy to admit when I have been told something I did not know before. One of the primary reasons why I enjoy reading is that it allows me a venue through which to garner knowledge. Even amongst the pages of a childrenโ€™s book, one might learn something shiny & new. In Matasโ€™ first picture book, the reader sees two (2) sisters grow through a world that is filled with the lives of other creatures; pants, nature & animals. Alongside the presentation of fabulously encapsulating illustrations done by Cornelia Li, small bodies of information are presented to the reader. How does one see the world?

It is certainly interesting to read a story in which the question being posed is so timely. Yet, Matas offers the young reader the opportunity to feel informed, enlightened & excited by the knowledge that they gather throughout the story. Who knew that owls could not move their eyes such as we? Certainly not me.

None of the information is overwhelming or overly detailed; each sentence is crafted with a specifically targeted audience in mind. The illustrations presented in conjunction with these tidbits work in tandem to allow the young reader to focus on the images they are interpreting, should they not yet be at a stage in which words are the primary driver behind selecting a book.

This story will do well in the hands of a dedicated parent &/or guardian who might spend the time with the reader working to highlight the differences between what information is presented, the images we see in the illustrations, & our own visual availability of the world. After all, what the young reader sees may very well vary from their friends & ultimately, the message of this book remains: every single being with sight interprets the world through different eyes, none of which are less important or great, but each of which adds value & dimensionality to the canvas in which we live.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orca Book Publishers & Carol Matas for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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This book gives a lot of interesting information on how animals see. The illustrations support the information and are beautiful. It is interesting how different animals see and how that differs from the way we see things.

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This interesting nonfiction picture book shows young readers that animals see things differently than humans do. Colorful illustrations present a view of what animals such as goats, dragonflies and robins see and as well as what a human would see. These illustrations support and enhance the written text. While I was reading the book I kept asking myself, how does the author know this? The answer is in the author's note! While the text can be a bit complex for the youngest readers, the information is fascinating. This would be a fine book to read and discuss with young children.

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