Abstract
This paper presents and discusses the results of a short qualitative survey on the error rate in children's books on nature, which I conducted among members of the Facebook group Přírodovědný kvíz (Science Quiz) in April 2020. From the research, it emerged that there are truly many errors in children's books on nature.
The discovered errors can be categorized as wrong names (the name of species or genus does not correspond to the illustration or photo), wrong classification or grouping, wrong occurrence or wrong co-occurrence of more organisms, wrong behaviour patterns (especially in regards to food), wrong body shape or part, and wrong orientation of body parts. The use of such books on nature with errors interferes with the development of scientific literacy, especially the development of scientific language.
It also affects the behaviour of children who want to imitate the heroes of children's books and, who, for example, subsequently carry hedgehogs home and feed them milk. Pre-school teachers and parents without a background in scientific education usually have trouble identifying such mistakes.
Thus, pupils enter primary schools having learnt ncorrect names of a great deal of species, as well as various misconceptions, which in some cases persist into adulthood