By: Sarah L. Thomson / Illustrated by: Andrew PlantYoung readers will really sink their teeth into this amazing nonfiction.Kids are fascinated by ancient animals. Its hard to beat the dinosaurs, but if anything can, its the saber-toothed cat. This cat, wit
By: Sarah L. Thomson / Illustrated by: Andrew Plant
Kids are fascinated by ancient animals. Its hard to beat the dinosaurs, but if anything can, its the saber-toothed cat. This cat, with knife-like fangs, was large enough and strong enough to take down a bison–can you imagine? A kid can. In this introduction to this fearsome cat, clear and concise sentences are designed for emergent readersfull of interesting facts and expanding vocabularies.
Zoologist Andrew Plants illustrations are scientifically accurate and full of drama. Young readers will be thrilled by situations that scientists believe were the way of life for this animal that lived sixteen thousand years ago.
Parents and teachers looking for books to fit the Common Core State Standards for Reading Literature and Reading Informational Texts in grades 14, look no further! Ancient Animals: Saber-toothed Cat will engage young readers with the amazing life story of an ancient animal, how it lived and hunted, and how it became extinct.
If you like this book, youll enjoy these:
Ancient Animals: Terror Bird
Secret Sabertooth
After the Kill
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Sarah L. Thomson, author
Sarah is a former children’s book editor who is now a full-time children’s book writer. She has written more than thirty books across many genres, including Ancient Animals: Terror Bird and Ancient Animals: Saber-Toothed Cat. She lives in Portland, Maine.
Read more about Sarah
Andrew Plant, illustrator
Andrew is a trained zoologist with a strong interest in paleontology. He has illustrated more than one hundred books for children, including Living Fossils: Clues to the Past; A Platypus, Probably; Ancient Animals: Terror Bird; and Ancient Animals: Saber-Toothed Cat. Andrew lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Read more about Andrew
Kirkus Reviews
The Ancient Animals series continues with a look at what’s known about the saber-toothed cats that lived thousands of years ago. An imagined hunting scene kicks off this introduction to saber-toothed cats, a well-camouflaged Smilodon fatalis hiding under a bush while a bear, a lion and two wolves pass by (all in the same illustration). A bison is the cat’s prey. Using its strong legs and sharp claws, the cat drags down the bison, killing it with either a bite to the throat or a slash to the bison’s stomach or side. Thomson goes on to explain how we know so much about these ancient cats: Bones found in asphalt tell us about its size, and from that, scientists can determine what it ate, how it caught its prey and a bit about its social groups. Scientists think that these cats became extinct because of competition for prey: Early humans hunted the same animals, and there was less prey to go around because a warming climate meant less grass for them to eat. Plant’s acrylic gouache illustrations are quite realistic, and each animal is helpfully labeled with its scientific name. Backmatter includes a list of other “large-toothed hunter[s]” and resources for finding out more. A good introduction to both saber-toothed cats and paleontology.
Download the Cover
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-58089-400-5
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-58089-407-4
E-book
ISBN: 978-1-60734-739-2 EPUB
ISBN: 978-1-60734-630-2 PDF
Ages: 6-9
Page count: 32
6 x 8 1/4
Correlated to Common Core State Standards:
English Language Arts-Literacy. Reading Informational. Grade 1. Standards 1-8 and 10.
English Language Arts-Literacy. Reading Informational. Grade 2. Standards 1, 3-8, and 10.
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