Our family has enjoyed the Zoobooks magazines for many years. Each short magazine provides the basic facts on an animal, or family of animals, such as its muscle and bone structure, special talents, behavior, communication, lifestyle, range, food, history, associated legends and myths, the state of the animal in today’s world, how it is regarded or used, by humans, and more. Detailed illustrations and large, full-color photographs fill the pages (sometimes we’d pull them out and use them for posters), illustrating each fact shared about the animal. A center booklet is included which features some activities for children, as well as some artwork and letters by other kids. When we were young, we collected these magazines voraciously, and they were passed around from sister to sister, with each of us reading them many times over. And since kids are so likely to just pick these up and read them, why not make them part of your curriculum. The sturdy, folder-like curriculum features vocabulary, critical thinking, language arts, science, mathematics, social studies, music, and art/games activities that accompany each Zoobook. For example, in the Tigers unit, the critical thinking activities are based on paragraphs read in the magazine, such as reading about how some wild felines live alone and some in groups. The activity has the student dentify the advantages and disadvantages of each. Language arts activities for this unit include finding poetry of the featured animal, and sharing “The Tiger” together, while in science they’ll test your senses to see how they measure up to a cat’s. In math, they’ll solve some equations based on tiger-word problems. In social studies they’ll research the tiger’s relationship to its India range and relation to the indigenous peoples, while in music they’ll play a game taunting a “lion” with a chant, and trying not to be “captured” by the lion. And, in art, they’ll create a lion-on-sandpaper art project. While not extensive, these handy folders provide good suggestions for ways to extend and reinforce the knowledge that they may otherwise read and forget. - Jess