Publisher's Weekly Review
Duprat gives readers an inside look at animal vision in this oversize volume. Mammals, birds, amphibians, worms, reptiles, mollusks, and insects boldly confront the reader in the full-page illustrations, while masklike flaps over the animals' eyes open to reveal an austere white building, a shallow pool of water, and a distant hot air balloon. The scene looks markedly different from each animal's perspective: a pigeon's field of vision is 300 degrees, a mouse can only clearly see objects less than a foot away, and an eyeless earthworm sees nothing at all. The flaps offer further details about how the individual animals see ("Although their vision may be blurry, frogs can see color"), and the book discusses how different animals view color, including a comparison of how humans and bees view flowers. The book's flaps may be susceptible to bending and tearing, but Duprat delivers an insightful exploration of a primary sense that varies among animals. Ages 6-12. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Keen looks into, and through, a wide range of animal eyes.Duprat opens his large-format gallery of vividly rendered animal faces, life size or (much) larger, with a fold-out leaf on which a surrealistic outdoor scene that is clear in the middle distance but a bit blurry in back- and foreground reproduces a typical human field of vision. On subsequent pages viewers can lift flaps to see how a chimp and a dog, an eagle, a frog, an earthworm, a bee, and 14 other creatures would see that scene's colors, objects, and edges. He shows what a cat would see by day and at night, varies the generally binocular view in a startling way by pointing a chameleon's eyes in two different directions, and suggests what the 360-degree perspective of a woodcock might look like. Along the way, in lucid specifics he explains how rods and cones gather information and brains process it, points out anatomical differences in each animal's ocular structure, and describes how each animal's distinctive combination of perceptual capabilities help it find or avoid becoming food. But even readers disinclined to care much about "ommatidia" or the difference between "dichromat" and "trichromat" retinas will be riveted by the experience of lifting flaps and literally (with the given proviso that we must imagine what birds and other animals who see into the ultraviolet perceive) seeing through new eyes.Eye-widening indeedin design as well as topic. (index, source list) (Informational picture book. 7-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
It's one thing to tell kids that flies have compound eyes consisting of around 3,000 miniature cameras that simultaneously capture thousands of images, sent to their brains to be sorted like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. It's another thing entirely to show what these images actually look like, using an illustration that takes up most of an oversize picture-book page. This luxurious offering compares human vision with the vision of 20 other animals, ranging from that of a horse and a cow right down to an earthworm. Readers lift flaps to see how the same scene would appear, based on differing fields of vision and abilities to focus and determine colors. The text employs technical terms explained in context and succinct, accessible summaries highlighting how different eyes help animals find food and keep safe. Younger audiences will enjoy the novelty each interactive page brings; older readers will gain an understanding of various properties of vision and their importance to survival. A glossary and list of resources help elevate this browser's delight to a useful STEM inquiry tool.--Kathleen McBroom Copyright 2018 Booklist
