Thoughts: Making More by Katherine Roy

Source: NetGalley – Many thanks to the publisher!
TL:DR: A beautifully drawn middle grade book about creating new life – probably best suited to school situations as opposed to personal collections.

Artwork: Absolutely stunning
Science: It’s the barebones of what you need to understand the topic, just enough for the target age-range
Writing: The actual science pages are well written, and easy to understand, though I found the framing pages and writing a bit unnecessary.

Thoughts:

Making More is a beautifully illustrated middle grade book about the cycle of life – specifically about the processing of breeding and ‘making more’. The drawings are intensely beautiful and I would argue are the main appeal of this book. They range from full page to a full spread, covering two pages in the style of a picture book with minimum text.

This layout is perhaps where I struggle with the aim of this book. It looks at first glance like a picture book but has the science and information that you would expect for a middle grade nonfiction. I can see certain groups of kids absolutely loving this book, and others may find not finding it as interesting, or find the format off-putting as it will remind them of ‘a book for kids’.

All that said, I thought the information was well laid out and well written. Kids (of a serious mindset, because let’s be honest this age demographic loves the joke about this topic) will enjoy it and it’s presented in a way that the kids can understand. I could most definitely see this as a great piece for a science, or even art classroom (if I still taught art this would be one I’d likely shelf).

   4 out of 5 adorable baby squirrels