Animal Invaders: Creatures Causing Trouble

Gr 2-5–A beginning reader that presents a wide range of invasive species found in North America. The introduction gives readers background information about how certain species end up where they don’t belong, and the subsequent chapters are divided into animal kingdom classes, including mammals, reptiles, and sea creatures. With each invasive creature, Clarke explains how they came to North America and the damage they do to the new ecosystems in which they find themselves. The reading level and writing style are appropriate for newly fluent readers who are becoming comfortable encountering novel vocabulary in the text. Several nonfiction text features, such as a table of contents, glossary, and bolded words, are missing. Pages are laid out so there isn’t a wall of text, and the photographs are relevant and interesting.