Animal Scavengers: Jackals, written by Sandra Markle, is a great informational book for children ages eight to 12, as stated in the book; and in my opinion, after reading the book, I believe the age range is just right, although I was able to learn about Jackals myself. There are three reasons I really liked this book: the illustrations, the language, and that it pushes readers to think about tough issues.

I really enjoyed the illustrations for the simple fact that they were real life pictures of Jackals in action. A few pictures of the jackal include: them eating deceased animals, how they groom, how they protect their territory, young jackals, their predators. The illustrations are really intriguing and serve a great purpose for the book: to enhance the learning of jackals.

I also liked the language that was depicted in the book. It was very descriptive, clear to the readers, and supported the illustrations. For example, the language to support an illustration of a two jackals grooming each other say, “Jackals often behave like dogs too. Each time the mated jackals meet, they lick each other’s ears and groom each other.” Because the author mentioned that jackals behave like dogs, this allows the readers to interpret what is being done in the illustration.

Lastly, I believe this book pushes readers to think about tough issues based on a few illustrations. For example, the first page of the book is of a jackal, with blood all over its face, eating a giraffe. I couldn’t believe this was the first illustration when I opened the book, however, based on the age range and thinking like a teacher, this is potentially what this age group could be learning about, the food chain. So, this picture along is a great conversation for children to have with their parents/ guardians or teachers that enables them to think about the though subject matters in life.

The big idea of this book is to inform readers about the life of jackals. And Sandra Markle does a great job doing so! ( )