January 6, 2023: DK Braille Animals Book

The DK organization publishes a variety of books, including ones in braille for young readers. We will be highlighting a few this month, starting with “Animals: Knowledge you can touch.” Not only are the words in print and tactile braille, but the pictures are also tactile. This allows readers to feel the shapes of animals along with their physical characteristics, such as fur, spots, or stripes. The creators are also wonderful at making images to proportion of one another. You can learn more at https://www.dk.com/us/.

pages 12 and 13 of the book, page 12: “Big cats” is written in a black print and braille on the top left, underneath in braille and print is “How big? All the big cats on this page are to scale with their domestic cousin, the pet cat.” To the right of the paragraph is “Domestic cat” in print and braille with a tactile image. The bottom of the page has an image of a lion with a tactile mane and tail and reads in print and braille: “Lion prides Lions live in ‘prides’ of 10 to 15 cats. The females hunt, while the males guard the pride.” Above the lion is a line connecting its mane to the description in print and braille “Male lion’s mane”
Page 13: The top of the page has an image of a tiger with tactile stripes and reads in print and braille “Tiger stripes Tigers are the largest big cats. The pattern of their striped fur is unique to each individual.” The bottom of the page has an image of a cheetah with tactile spots and reads in print and braille “Cheetah speed Cheetahs are the fastest four-legged animals, running up to 110 kph (70 mph).” To the right of the cheetah is a line connecting the cheetah to the description in print and braille “Cheetah’s spotted fur”

Front cover with a white background, “DK” with an outline of a book around it and “Braille” in red print and the braille translation underneath in the top left corner, a black and white stiped zebra with tactile white stripes is in the center, underneath the zebra is the large print word “Animals” in blue with the braille translation underneath, under that is “Knowledge you can touch” in print in blue with the braille translation underneath