Book Review: Wolves by Meis Thewissen (Mini Information #353)

 

  Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Mini Informatie #353: Wolven.

Okay, so in Dutch schools there's (or used to be) this type of very short and concise A5-sized information books about all sorts of topics. There were a few different runs of these types of books and for different reading levels, but the basic gist is the exact same. Pick a topic, write a short and to-the-point book about it with some information and illustrations and that's it. They're never long, usually about 20-40 pages each. They're just here to teach children the basics of a subject and because they're so short they're easy to digest and children can read about a lot of wide topics in a short time. I mean, just look at the number of books there are in this series.

So, case in point, today I'll be reviewing the Mini Information book on wolves, because reviewing wolf books is my jam.

In this book, the author gives us the very bare basics about wolves. How they live, what they look like, what they eat, etc.

You'd think that, with only sixteen pages, this book wouldn't really be good but to my surprise it actually is. I mean, yes, it is really short and obviously there is a lot of information about wolves that isn't covered here. But for what the book is trying to do, introducing very young children to the topic of wolves...it does it well.

The text is to the point but also gets the point across easily like this. Despite the amount of information being given being small, it's still correct. It does use the terms alpha male and alpha female, but not in the context of them being feared leaders, so the use of the "alpha-beta-omega dominance" theory isn't really present here. 

And for the young children it also looks appealing. Pretty photos, interesting illustrations, neatly organized larger text with important words colored with a glossary in the back (keep in mind that this is directed at an audience who only recently learned to read, so this is important). 

So while I expected to go into this review that it'd be too brief and too simple, I was pleasantly surprised. As far as wolf non-fiction books in general go this is of course way too little information, but for the target audience, young children who are learning to read and want to learn more about the topic, it does its job very well.

Rating: 4/5