Review Detail

Sy Montgomery and Rebecca Green join forces to create a picture book version of the memoir/nature study, How to Be a Good Creature. Travel across the world and find animals of all shapes and sizes to find nontraditional teachers who offer valuable lessons.

My favorite part of BECOMING A GOOD CREATURE is the beautiful artistry. Rebecca Green does a phenomenal job using soft lines, natural colors, and fun animal expressions to bring this picture book to life. Though I'm usually not one to find spiders cute, Green's depiction of a tarantula sitting on a leaf was adorable and made me question by bias towards them.

A big theme in this animal adventure is finding new and unexpected ways to learn. We usually think of education as sitting in a classroom with an instructor and a textbook. Montgomery demonstrates how new life lessons and knowledge are everywhere around us, and the greatest teachers sometimes aren't people at all.

While I love the range of animals featured (emus to dogs to spiders and more), I wish there were more specific countries mentioned. A few countries, like India, are named, but other animal adventure locations Montgomery visited are just named by continent like Africa and South America. It would have been a fun opportunity to introduce young readers to new countries.

Overall, BECOMING A GOOD CREATURE is perfect for the nature and animal lovers in your life, old or young, and delivers a meaningful message on becoming students of the world around us.