Who Would Win?

The Who Would Win? series by Jerry Pallotta and Ray Bolster was a huge hit with my students, particularly the boys.  I will confess right now that I put off reading them because I thought they would cater to kids' fascination with fighting and winning.  I finally decided I had to read at least one to see if I could figure out why kids like them so much.

My apologies to Mr. Pallotta - I should have known that anything written by you would be filled with interesting facts, definitions, and thought-provoking questions.

Instead of a book focused on an imaginary battle between two animals, readers are presented with both basic and little-known facts about the two animals in compare/contrast style to prompt the reader to think about how the characteristics listed would benefit or work against that animal in a battle. Each page also has multiple text boxes containing facts, questions, and definitions.

The final few pages lay out a possible battle scenario and each book ends with a "Who Has the Advantage? Checklist  and the following author's note; "This is one way the fight might have ended.  How would you write the ending?"

The series currently contains 12 books.  You can't go wrong if your child is interested in animals or nonfiction in general.  Be sure to check out other books by Jerry Pallotta.  He knows how deliver content in interesting ways that keep kids coming back for more.