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Reviewed by:
  • Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins
  • Deborah Stevenson, Editor
Jenkins, Steve. Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World; written and illus. by Steve Jenkins. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. [32p]. ISBN 978-0-547-95907-8 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys      R Gr. 2–4.

Jenkins continues his anatomical tour of the animal world (What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?, BCCB 3/03, etc.) by looking at, well, looking. Beginning by briefly outlining the four commonest kinds of eye (from the cluster of light-sensitive cells that is an eyespot to the focusable camera eye of humans), the book goes on to offer a gallery of animals with different visual capabilities. Each page features an animal, a brief paragraph explaining its vision, a facial close-up for good eye viewing, and a thumbnail of the animal in its entirety. Subjects include the snail, whose eyes mostly detect predatorial shadows; the nautilus, whose lensless pinhole eyes allow water to flow in and out; the green pit viper, who has a special organ that allows it to see infrared radiation; and the halibut, whose eyes migrate as it gets older so that they both end up on one side. Though a bit more explanation or labeling would have been helpful in a few spots, it’s an enlightening overview, and the framing of eye anatomy, especially the concluding chart explaining the evolution of the eye, gives the information a broader context that gives the book impact beyond Jenkins’ famously vivid cut-paper illustrations. End matter includes additional facts about the featured animals and a glossary of terms.

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