Flying Lemur

Gr 1–3—A tree habitat is the common element to this otherwise diverse range of animals. Like other Bearport series reviewed in this article, this set's writing and visual materials are effectively designed to meet the learning abilities of early elementary readers. Sentence length, labels, and captions convey enough information to engage students without overwhelming them. Questions, suggestions, and a simple "Science Lab" activity get kids thinking about what they're learning and serve as useful starting points for Common Core-based lessons. The color photos and maps correspond well with the texts. However, the combination of species information with more general data results in some potential confusion. For example, in Tree Frog, toucans are listed as "Tree Frog Predators," which is true for red-eyed tree frogs, but not for many other species. The set may address subject holes for rarely covered topics, although PowerKids's comparable "Up a Tree" series includes several of the animals featured here.