Crinkleroot's four-volume guide to the one hundred animals every child should know, which includes Crinkleroot's 25 Birds Every Child Should Know, Crinkleroot's 25 Fish Every Child Should Know and Crinkleroot's 25 More Animals Every Child Should Know, concludes with this final volume, profiling twenty-five mammals. After a brief introduction, in which Crinkleroot describes some of the characteristics of mammals - they feed on their mother's milk, they take some time to reach maturity - twenty-five examples, from humans to wolves and elephants to whales, are introduced...

Like its companions, Crinkleroot's 25 Mammals Every Child Should Know features an interesting array of creatures, and beautiful watercolor illustrations from author/artist Jim Arnosky. Other than the brief introduction, there isn't any text here, other than the name of each mammal, making this more of an introductory field guide, than a more informative non-fiction exploration. It works quite well at its intended purpose, and I particularly liked that humans were included in this category, as so many times we tend to forget that we are part of the natural world as well. Recommended to young animals lovers, and to fans of Arnosky's artwork. ( )