Thursday, November 4, 2010

Book Review: If Animals Could Talk

If Animals Could Talk by Dr. Werner Gitt, is an amazing little book.  At just over a hundred pages, this would have been a really quick book for me to read, however I opted to read a section or two of it at a time at the lunch table.  My kids, ages 4-13, all appreciated it.

The book consists of twelve chapters, most being about 8-9 pages.  Those chapters we read in one sitting.  Some chapters (the whales!) we had to break up over a couple of meals.

The first ten chapters are all told as though the animal in question was talking to us (except chapter 7, where a human eye is doing the talking... that chapter was a bit, well, weird).  So you listen to an earthworm or a dragonfly tell about themselves.  Sounds a bit strange, but it was very well done.  And all these creatures -- from a bacterium to a blue whale -- tell about the miracles of their design and of their designer.

As I stated above, my children all enjoyed it.  The four year old mostly found it funny that I was pretending to be all these animals.  The elementary crowd (1st and 4th grade) enjoyed the fascinating facts, and particularly loved when the sparrow had to fly away from a hawk or other such encounters.  They are boys.  They adore predators.

My older two (6th and 8th) argued back with the critters. Seriously.  They went looking up the Bible verses being quoted by the whale, for instance, to prove their point.  That led to some fascinating discussion (and is probably why the whale chapter took us so long to get through!)

Overall, I'd recommend this book as a fun way to talk about some of the everyday miracles all around us in creation. 

Disclaimer:   I received this book for free from New Leaf Publishing Group.  No other compensation was received.  The fact that I received a complimentary product does not guarantee a favorable review. 

1 comment:

Tess said...

This books sounds fascinating! I think my all my girls, yes even the 15 year old, would enjoy this as a lunch time read aloud. I know my special needs daughter and my 11 year old would love this book. Great review!