WHOSE BONES ARE THOSE?

Can you match the skeletons with their animals?

After being presented with a group of bones splayed across the page, readers are asked to guess what kind of animal they belong to. The next page depicts the bones put together in a skeleton as a hint; finally, the answer is revealed. Some animals are relatively easy, like the flamingo, but some are more difficult, like the lion. All animals featured in this book are vertebrates, though not all are mammals—a turtle, a whale, a giraffe, a snake, a crocodile, an elephant, a bat, a penguin, a reindeer, and a rhinoceros round out the cast. Humans are not included in the installments, but human skeletons are featured on the front endpapers, while a diverse group of human children can be found in the back endpapers along with two robots. Takeuchi’s colors are bold and bright, yet the backgrounds are plain—the animals’ natural habitats are not included. Children will enjoy using this charming book both as a way to learn about animals and to play the matching and guessing game. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A whimsical reminder that all animals—including humans—are just a heap of bones!