Another solid addition to Holland’s series.
Holland’s latest in the Animal Anatomy and Adaptations series looks at how animals use their noses.
Noses in the animal kingdom are used for more than just smelling and breathing: They are also useful for finding food and mates, avoiding predators, and navigating. A star-nosed mole wiggles the feelers on its nose to locate earthworms underground; a frog can find its home by smell; and a snake collects particles on its tongue and uses the Jacobson’s organ on the roof of its mouth to identify the smells. A wide range of animals is presented here, not all of them with true noses, which the author points out. For instance, birds breathe and smell through nostrils just above their beaks (different species’ senses of smell vary), and insects breathe through spiricles and smell with antennae. Some facts will amaze: Polar bears can smell seals through 3 feet of ice, and beavers’ noses close when underwater. Backmatter includes an explanation of the sense of smell (written at a significantly higher reading level than the primary text), more fun facts, and two matching/identify activities. As with Holland’s previous examinations of animals’ parts, the close-up photos are the main attraction. Vocabulary is defined in the text, which is mainly written for younger readers, with questions to get them engaged, shorter sentences, and simple vocabulary (“peeing and pooping”).
Another solid addition to Holland’s series. (Nonfiction. 3-9)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60718-805-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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