– Dorothy Hinshaw Patent clearly presents the facts about all big cats, from where they live to what they hunt to how they are threatened by humans. With fine artist Kendahl Jan Jubb's striking watercolors, these perfectly adapted hunting machines leap off the pages. ( )

This book provides a quick overview of the world's large subspecies of feline. The introduction covers the first eleven pages. The pictures are colorful and illustrative of scenes where cats exhibit some feature of physique or behavior. The text rarely covers more than a fourth of each page, the illustrations covering about 80 percent. The book is divided into seven chapters, each devoted to a specific cat: cheetah, cougar, jaguar, lion, leopard, snow leopard, and tiger. An index of cats is provided in the back that lists all of the cats mentioned in the book with the page number.

One of the perks of this book, is that it shows the territorial nature of the cats. Cats only occupy certain global and local territories. A panoramic illustration in the back shows the country where each cat subspecies is located. The book also covers certain nicknames that these cats are given (i.e. Cougar a.k.a. "Mountain Lion"). Other positive features of this book are that the page numbers are framed in a logo of a cat's paw print. Also, each chapter begins with an information box that gives the scientific name for the subspecies, the head and body length, tail length, shoulder height, and weight of males and females. This allows the reader to compare the cats and arrange them from smallest to largest. The section on Tigers is also complete with a breakdown of sub-species of Tiger (Bengal, Indo-Chinese, Chinese, Siberian, and Sumatran). A great companion book for children interested in the world's most fearsome creatures. ( )

I had mixed feelings about the book “Big Cats” by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent. One aspect I liked in the book was the illustrations. The illustrations took up the entire page and were brightly colored. Another aspect I liked about the illustrations was that each illustration was drawn with much detail. The reader could see the lion’s large teeth and the sharp claws that they have. Another aspect of the story that I liked was that it included a map at the bottom of each page, when it introduced a new animal. Each map stated where each animal could be found, their tail length, body and head length, shoulder height, weight of males and weight of females (on average). An aspect of the story that I did not like was the writing. Even though the writing was very detailed with facts, it was very long. I think children would become bored reading page after page. “The teeth of big cats are perfectly adapted for hunting. The front teeth, called the incisors, are small. Their largest teeth are long, sharp canines at the front corners of the mouth.” The big idea of this story is to understand that wild animals are dangerous. ( )

In my opinion this book is a good book dependent upon your use for it. The two things I like about the book are the the illustrations and the writing. The illustration of the end pages are appropriate to the story. The book is about wild cats and these picture are drawn in a way that makes the cats seem like they are on the prowl. The muscles in their legs are very defined in the pictures to depict the strength they have. What I like about the writing is that the book has text boxes the characteristic attributes of this cats with a picture of the area where they are likely to be found. The message of this book is to inform the reader about cats in the wild ( )

Informational book about large cats in the world, including tigers. Would make a great expository piece to help write a paper for a student interested in this topic. Appropriate for younger kids, but older kids would love it I think.