I don't think we have encountered a Bobbie Kalman book we truly hated. This one was a great intro to mid level elementary school explanation of classification of the animal kingdom. I used it during the first week of a unit on zoology for a brand new 3rd grader. He read it independently throughout a week after first discussing the classifications. There was at least one picture per 2-page spread, and not an overwhelming amount of text. I found the information to be in depth for his age, a little bit challenging at times, but the pictures broke it up enough that he could cope with this as an independent exploration. He is an average reader for his grade and enjoyed this one quite a bit.