Published by Candlewick

Summary:  On page 1, we meet Arvo.  On page 2, we meet Arvo’s family: a family tree going back to his great grandparents and to third cousins once removed, including the percentage of DNA each shares with Arvo.  Page 3 is Arvo’s cat Malcolm–and the family of cats, a.k.a. Felidae.  And so it goes throughout Arvo’s day.  His violin lesson is accompanied by an illustration of musical instrument classification; the car ride to the violin lesson includes vehicles and how they are grouped.  There are pages for clouds, foods, the library, and more.  When Arvo’s dad picks him up at the end of the day, though, he’s able to pick his son out of a crowd.  When Arvo asks him how, his dad tells him, “There is only one YOU!”  Includes an additional four pages giving more information on each of the classification systems.  48 pages; grades 2-5.

Pros:  Many years ago, when I worked at the Boston Museum of Science, I looked in vain for good children’s books on classification (my co-worker and I actually tried writing one).  I wish we had had this excellent oversized book to show kids how all kinds of objects in the world are sorted and classified into groups.  Readers will want to spend a lot of time with the detailed illustrations on every page.

Cons:  This is another large book that librarians may struggle to find space for.