Animal Encyclopedia: 2,500 Animals with Photos, Maps, and More! (National Geographic Kids) Hardcover – 9 Oct. 2012

This is a very interesting book, full of great pictures of the various animals. I can't wait to share it with my young niece who adores animals.

Very impressed with this book, lovely condition and excellent value for money, very happy and my granddaughter loved it

My 10yr old niece is going through an "animal phase" so knowing the quality of National Geographic photography this book seemed like a good choice for her Christmas gift. Well it certainly was! Upon unwrapping she curled up in a corner with it and could barely be roused for a good few hours other than to regale us with facts and point out particularly interesting creatures. I understand from her mum that she loves dipping into it to find a new animal and it has really fueled her passion for finding out more about the animals she come across. I think we might have created a budding zoologist!

As A DK book fan, as my knowledge book collection for my school childern are mainly is from DK. The pictures in this are very good, if not better than DK, also decent facts, suitable for 12 plus I think. as my 10 year old struggles, But I read as well. I love the national geographic channels,( as a dad) This is a support book is great for kids.

I bought this book as a gift for my boyfriend who loves animals. I wasn't sure if it was meant for children or adults, but it doesn't matter - the book is full of fascinating snippets of information and presented in a beautiful way. It is ideal for either a child or an adult who loves learning about the animal kingdom. It offers a lot of unusual facts that you might not necessarily know, even if you have a keen interest in animals.

The layout of this book is easy to follow and the pictures are both informative and enchanting. My two young granddaughters love looking at the animals and asking questions about them. When they are a little older they will be be able to read the information for themselves. An excellent introduction to the animal world.

Overall the book is a wonderful, colourful representation of an immense amount of animals on the planet. The photography is wonderful as is some of the information it contains. My 7 and 2.5 yr old sons love it and I try to involve it in someway each evening where possible.I have one criticism of Amazon - that they should have a 'look inside' preview for all books (since I live outside the UK this book is not in any book stores in my country to check out). Not much point of an online bookstore that you can't actually check out the books first. Makes more sense to go into a book store and pay that little extra and actually see inside what you are getting. but unfortunately i don't have that option - in my country of residence there are no English books either :)The one criticism of the book is that it really does not have enough information about each animal. The descriptions or info is minimal at best - I was hoping for my sons to learn a little bit more about the animals, to have some fascinating fact they can latch onto but in reality it's a photographic album with a few 'titbits' of info. There is a gap in the types of books available on the subject with lots of encyclopedias out there that have a lot of detailed information but are too serious, complex and boring for children under 10 and usually with not very good images (or not many) and then there are the children's animal encyclopedias which are too 'kiddy' with lots of animations rather than quality pictures, there is nothing in between and this was what I was hoping this book would be. It says there are 2500 animals included - I would have settled for 1500 (since many animals shown are just different types of the same animal - dog or fox for example) and more certainly fascinating information rather than a nice photo and 4 lines of text (how much it weighs, where it lives and what it eats - that's it). For example it sells the book saying there are thousands of fascinating facts - I've read about 25 pages at random with my boys and probably found less than 10 so that's a big ask for the rest of the book :)Another website (not amazon) promotes the book with a quote of 'did you know Tigers have stripes on their skin so if you shave a tiger, it's stripes are still visible - I can't find this in the book, it's not on the Tiger page at least. It says very little about Tigers unfortunately.I give it 4 stars simply because it still is an amazing and quality book to have on your bookshelf and which kids love for the pictures alone but it loses a star because of the lack of 'fascinating' information it actual doesn't have. I would recommend anyone to buy it anyway because it is quality, but if you do want fascinating information and not just beautiful photography I'd search for another book to fill this void to compliment it with, which is what i am doing.

My 9 Yr old loves this and have to say I find it very informative.Full of photos and info on even some of the not so common or heard about animals.It is a good sized book (each page a4 size).Would definitely recommend to any animal lover.