The Eyes Have It

A couple books show how animals see the world...

Animal Eyes

by Mary Holland

32 pages; ages 4-8

Arbordale Publishing, 2015

Eyes come in different sizes, shapes, and colors. We depend on our eyes to find things, to recognize friends, to read a story. Animals depend on their eyes to find food, recognize their families, and understand the world around them.

 

Filled with photos, Mary Holland shows a diversity of animal eyes. She shows the difference between predator eyes and prey eyes. She discusses simple eyes and compound eyes. Her photos include night eyes and day eyes, eyes with special eyelids, and animals with more than two eyes.

Back matter includes fun facts and a matching game.

Eye to Eye: How Animals See The World

by Steve Jenkins

32 pages; ages 6-9

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014

Jenkins reinforces the message that we rely on vision to understand the world around us. Most animals do – but what they see may be different than what we see. Between the covers of his book, Jenkins introduces you to animals with more than 100 eyeballs and animals with eyes on the tips of their toes. You discover that some animals can look in two directions at the same time, and meet one creature with eyes the size of a basketball.

Jenkins uses realistic cut-and-torn–paper images to show blue eyes, orange eyes, black eyes and gold, eyes on stalks and tops of heads, eyes that see barest shadows and eyes that can see a rabbit from two miles away. At the back there’s a handy explanation on how eyes evolved, and some cool facts about each animal mentioned – plus a glossary.

Bees see the world in a totally different way than we do. Not only do they have compound eyes, but they see in the ultraviolet spectrum.   You can watch a video about how bees can see the invisible world here.

Today is STEM Friday - head over to the STEM Friday blog to see what other bloggers are talking about. Review copies provided by publisher.