Mountains: Explore Earth's Majestic Mountain Habitats

by Charlotte Guillain, Eleanor Taylor (Illustrations)

De magnifiques montagnes surplombent et veillent sur la planète Terre. Regarde-les de plus près et découvre les trésors inattendus que recèlent ces anciennes géantes ! Fais le tour du monde pour observer la faune, les paysages et les merveilles naturelles de ces monuments de pierre en constante évolution. Pars à la découverte des beautés du monde naturel !

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Nature, Nonfiction

64 pages, Hardcover

Published July 21, 2020

About the author

Charlotte Guillain has written over 100 books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her most well-known titles are the 'George's Amazing Adventures' picture book series, including 'Spaghetti with the Yeti' and 'Pizza for Pirates'. 'Spaghetti with the Yeti' was shortlisted for nine awards, including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Before writing children's books, Charlotte worked as a bookseller, a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, and an editor.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an electronic ARC from The Quarto Group through NetGalley.
Guillain presents information about mountains all across the globe for elementary level readers. Informative text in short paragraph style works for readers at this level. She captures what is important about a mountain including various animals who survive there. The illustrations are vividly colored and realistic to support the text and allow readers to see the mountains themselves.
Short book that will capture third to fifth graders' attention and provide an introduction to mountains on earth. Further resources list provided at the end.
An updated and refreshing text. Will be a welcome addition to our library.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this straightforward, informative and easy to follow book on mountains of the world. We learn the two main types - upthrust or fold mountains and volcanic mountains. Then we're given plenty of examples of each and we visit their higher and lower slopes, seeing what if anything lives in these areas. Not much lives on the top of Mt Everest, so here we learn about glaciers and crevasses. Elsewhere we learn about mountain lions and small birds, lizards and butterflies.
At the end is a map of the world showing the locations we've visited.

The author Charlotte Guillain tells us she grew up in a place with no mountains - her surname sounds Dutch, and the Netherlands is a delta. The illustrations by Chris Madden are relatively simple graphics but full of colour and movement (and kids will be daring one another to touch the jumping spider). This wonderful exploration of mountains and their habitats won't be enough for many young readers, who will want to add to the list with Vesuvius, the Southern Alps, Appalachians and many more. Which, of course, is exactly what we'd want.

I would recommend the book for readers eight to twelve years old, or younger if an adult is reading with them and helping them pronounce new words. I certainly learnt something from the read, so in a sense there is no upper age limit. Enjoy!

I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty efficient book – and certainly a very pretty one – yet one that didn't perhaps deliver what I expected. It's about mountains for sure, so we start with the shifting plates, and find ourselves quickly on top of Everest and working our way down the Himalayan slopes, finding different subjects – even jumping spiders – to look at. Then we have a jump ourselves, as we jump cut quite forcefully to Iceland, then on around the world, before building slowly up the slopes of the Rockies to the reducing ice fields and glaciers up there. The subjects seem at times to be a little random, and delivered in what is almost a poetic style, so we will get a full lesson on the subject without the structure and fact that some educators might wish for. I think I thought to get more of a beginner's gazetteer to the mountain ranges and peaks of note, not these sort of postcards from different locales. Still, they are incredibly visual postcards – the style of the art here is really top notch, getting atmosphere and beauty aplenty on the page. Other things of note about the text – it might have had a glossary, for it mentions tundra (as an example) without definition, and it is too fond of ellipses, leaving all the featured creatures poised to get lunch and never satisfyingly fed. But these snapshots of the slopes are certainly visually appealing enough to make up for it. Three and a half stars.

[Erika Sarutobi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

The book is about some well-known mountains and a few pages about certain animals that live and survive there (sometimes in extreme weathers). The art is simple but also gives it an intricate feel with details the closer you look. The text is written in a way that’s similar to the narration ones you usually hear in animal documentaries or shows like from Natgeo in my opinion. I always love reading environmental awareness messages in books like these, especially for children since they're the coming generation and sadly have to be aware from now to start reducing all the pollution we continuously release and produce.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy for an honest review.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I wish to thank NetGalley and the author Charlotte Guillain for ARC.
This is a beautiful book. It is also a learning experience that will keep kids interest. Fantastic, colorful and detailed illustrations are also a way to read and look which deepens the experience. It discusses mountains from across the world and different elevations of mountains and the plants and animals that can thrive in sometimes very harsh conditions. It is a reasoned approach to global warming and how climate affects the ecosystems of our world.
I would recommend this for third grade and up for solitary reading and younger for sharing. I will say that I enjoyed it too.

[I'mogén · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for an e-copy. All opinions are 100% my own.

This was a beautifully illustrated depiction of some of the beautiful mountains around the world. It also included the habitat descriptions, the flora and fauna species that flourish in their environments and also gently talks about how climate change and human mistreatment is causing the decline in numbers of some of these species.

An excellent book for young scientists in the making but also a great way to encourage young readers to have a passion for nature and the environment, as well as the impact people have on the planet..

Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative book on the various mountains that exist around our world. Enjoyed learning about the many different forms of life that exist in these remote areas. Found the section on the Rainbow Mountains as well as the Himalayan Spider (even spiders) particularly intriguing and a fact I believe most adults have never heard about. The artwork is well done but feel the muted colors on some pages, though realistic, appeared faded and may lose a students’ interest. As I prefer photographs, I may be prejudiced in this area. Since there are hundreds of other books on this same topic, I don’t believe there is the need for a library to purchase another book covering the same subject.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just had to try this book out. We don't have mountains were I live so they have always fascinated me. Plus I have read a couple of other books by Charlotte Guillain and I loved them, so I had to try this one out as well.

Review to come July 7th.

[Shauna Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested and received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and Quatro Publishing Group in exchange for my honest opinion.

Great non-fiction book about the different mountain ranges and their habitats. I learned something I did not know, which was the fact that Nanga Parbat is still growing each year at such a high rate. This book was informative, and I enjoyed reading it.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you ready to tour the mountain ranges of the world? If you are, GRAB this book. Great general information is available and a wealth of specific details to each specific mountain too. I learned so much about the animals and plants that it made me eager for more. Really nice book especially for readers less familiar with mountains.

[April Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated, interesting, and informative book about mountains around the world. There are gorgeous spreads showing individual mountains, mountain ranges, and volcanoes, with the habitats around them, and include examples of flora and fauna. Will definitely appeal to children interested in nature and/or montology.

#Mountains #NetGalley

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice images/illustrations of mountains and the life that it holds/surrounds it. It does list the mountains in contents. It does try to have mountains from around the world. Great starter information for anyone and is great for nature lovers or wanting to raise kids with the love of nature.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The art in this book was very beautiful and detailed. Children will learn a lot of important mountain ranges in the world. Also features some of the animals that live there. Simple text for early readers.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the illustrations and fun organization of this informational book.

[Asma Khatun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads more like a storybook. The physical world is magnificent and this book attempts to depict that. The illustrations are pretty! Would add to a science curriculum!

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book on Mountains. What makes them special. There uniqueness in their setting. Also the wildlife and creatures that can be found in those habitats.
A very informative book with lovely pictures to go along side. My only criticism would be that I would have liked to see some photographs to give even more detail alongside the illustrations.

[EmberJenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a BEAUTIFUL book with information about a variety of mountains across the globe as well as some of the animals and insects living there and bit about the climate, etc. I love the illustrations!! I love most of the info - it's simple but descriptive. However, "millions of years" appears every time a new mountain or mountain range is mentioned and then again in the author's note at the end (p. 4, 6, 18, 22, 33, 35, 48, 60, 62, 63). I'm a young earth creationist, so this is too much for my liking (vs some books which just have a couple of mentions or so). Because this is a picture book without a ton of text, it's just too frequent for my use. If you are a secular family or if you believe in millions of years, this book is a winner. If not, look for something else or do it as a read-aloud and let your kids focus on the lovely pictures instead of the text. ;-)
So, for me, this book gets 5 stars for the illustrations and all the descriptions about the birds/animals/etc. and 2 stars due to the constant mentions of millions of years as per my personal beliefs - hence the compromise of 3 stars.