The growing discussion about the quality of Science textbooks has clearly altered the editorial market in the past few years in Brazil. Despite remarkable improvement, a considerable amount of teachers has not yet had access to means for analyzing Science textbooks. In this context, we propose a series of criteria to be used by the teacher when electing the textbook used at junior high schools, using as a model the zoological content. The following topics were considered: theoretical contents, visual information, practical activities and complementary information. Through this study, ee intend to contribute to the debate about the necessity of a stronger involvement of teachers in the process of book choice.
textbook assessment; teachers' education; Science teaching; junior high school