A solid addition to the series and a great compare/contrast exercise for classrooms.
Following Animal Noses (2018), Holland’s latest looks at the various coverings for animals’ skin.
Hair, feathers, and scales may look different one to the other, but they serve largely the same purposes: camouflage, protection from predators and the weather, warnings to keep away, and aids to attracting a mate. Spots on a moth’s wings that look like eyes fool predators. A skunk’s black-and-white pattern acts as a warning. Fawns’ white spots help camouflage them, and a bird’s feathers trap air, helping the animal stay warm. Holland also looks at insects; their exoskeletons cannot grow. Instead, they grow a new skin under the old one and then shed the one that’s too small. Snakes do the same. (Holland missteps a bit with her statement that “If you look closely at a shed snake skin you can see the scales.” Those are not the actual scales but are made of something similar—keratin, which is in our nails and hair.) As in the whole Animal Anatomy and Adaptations series, the close-ups of the creatures are the big draw. Highlights are the frog peeking out of the water and the close-up of a fluffed-up bluejay amid falling snow. Backmatter includes some matching activities and more information.
A solid addition to the series and a great compare/contrast exercise for classrooms. (Nonfiction. 3-9)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64351-339-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude.
A deceptively simple, visually appealing, comprehensive explanation of volcanoes.
Gibbons packs an impressive number of facts into this browsable nonfiction picture book. The text begins with the awe of a volcanic eruption: “The ground begins to rumble…ash, hot lava and rock, and gases shoot up into the air.” Diagrams of the Earth’s structural layers—inner and outer core, mantle, and crust—undergird a discussion about why volcanoes occur. Simple maps of the Earth’s seven major tectonic plates show where volcanoes are likeliest to develop. Other spreads with bright, clearly labeled illustrations cover intriguing subtopics: four types of volcanoes and how they erupt; underwater volcanoes; well-known volcanoes and historic volcanic eruptions around the world; how to be safe in the vicinity of a volcano; and the work of scientists studying volcanoes and helping to predict eruptions. A page of eight facts about volcanoes wraps things up. The straightforward, concise prose will be easy for young readers to follow. As always, Gibbons manages to present a great deal of information in a compact form.
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude. (Nonfiction picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4569-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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