Young animal lovers and science fans will glom onto this paper-over-board information book brimming with facts and humor. An inviting design allows readers to dip in and out or read straight through the profiles of 50 fascinating creatures, which appear in alphabetical order.
Michael Hearst, a composer and musician, begins with an introduction that explains biological classifications, plus a mnemonic device (Kids Place Candles On Foot Gravy Sausage = Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species). Then he plunges in, from axolotl (featured on the cover) to yeti crab. Each one-page or full-spread treatment gives the scientific name, the Kingdom, Phylum, Class, etc., a map of its habitat, a brief description and fun factoid, plus a picture of the creature with a scale of inches or feet, to get a sense of its size.
The factoids might be his "short poem" tributes to half a dozen of these animals of land, sea and sky (the bilby, blobfish, dugong, etc.), or it might be more visual--such as mapping out an odd process unique to the creature. A series of images depicts the regeneration of the axolotl's tail and, for the humpback anglerfish, its unusual process of procreating. For the Chinese giant salamander, which can measure up to six feet, Hearst delivers a playful "Pop Quiz." The first question: "The female Chinese giant salamander makes..."; among the answers are "up to 500 eggs," "friends, which last a lifetime" and "the perfect pet!" Hearst lists "Platyfacts" for the platypus (e.g., "The platypus bill is rubbery and flexible. It is not recyclable"). Jelmer Noordeman's artwork illustrates each animal with scientific accuracy, selecting the perspective that will play up its unique feature best, such as the blobfish at rest on land, when gravity pulls its jellylike features into a decrepit-old-man grimace.
Hearst brings extreme situations into a child's realm. For instance, he likens the bee hummingbird drinking eight times its total body mass daily to being "sort of like if you or I drank four bathtubs full of water every day." He compares a pair of male giraffe-necked weevils fighting to win over a female to "two excavator construction vehicles at war." The author's enthusiasm will infect readers, too. With its quirky facts and creatures and the sense of a world waiting to be revealed, this book may well inspire a new generation of budding scientists. --Jennifer M. Brown
Shelf Talker: In this invitingly designed volume featuring 50 eclectic creatures of the land, sea and air, Michael Hearst will infect young readers with his enthusiasm for the natural world.