Is This a Tiger?

K-Gr 3–Atticus has never seen a tiger, but lucky for him, his friend Alex knows everything about them. In this second installment of “Alex’s Field Guides,” Alex assists Atticus by highlighting one tiger characteristic at a time, such as big teeth. In his quest for understanding, Atticus brings in everything except the correct animal and asks, “Is this a tiger?” Each time the answer is, “No!” Only after repeated visits does Atticus put it all together and even comes face-to-face with the real thing. The narrative cleverly alternates between first-person narration, speech balloons, and excerpts from the detailed field guide. While older readers might enjoy poring over the richly informative pages, younger ones may find the font size and vocabulary a challenge. Regardless, the story is easy to follow and allows readers to pull information from two different levels of text. The digitally rendered illustrations are vibrant and engaging, perfectly complementing the text. The back matter is a nice touch, featuring a picture gallery of all the animals encountered, further enhancing the learning experience.