Deadly!: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth

by Nicola Davies, Neal Layton (Illustrator)

Overview

“Jam-packed with fascinating information with plenty of the ick factor to keep kids (and adults) turning the pages.” — San Francisco Book Review

Sometimes nature can be nasty: snakes that spit poison, insects with exploding bottoms, and tigers that have you for dinner. Throughout the animal kingdom, creatures are equipped with lethal weapons, from finger-length fangs to toxic tentacles, and have ingenious ways of killing one another, from poisoning to dive-bombing to strangling and even electrocuting! Discover the murderous methods of attack and defense that make animals armed, dangerous, and deadly. Kids will sink their teeth into this fascinating look at nature’s fiercest creatures. Back matter includes an index and a glossary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763679712
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Series:	Animal Science
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	NC1170L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

 

Editorial Reviews

Easily digestible.
—Kirkus

In this squat volume, the sixth nature-themed collaboration from this duo, Davies strikes a light tongue-in-cheek tone to explore hostile animal behavior. Layton’s characteristically deadpan cartoons show animals using an arsenal of defense mechanisms and demonstrating predatory prowess...While educating readers about the fascinating ways animals kill one another, Davies also speaks to the importance of nature conservation and the human impact on wildlife.
—Publishers Weekly

This humorous and fact-filled book is chock-full of fun. From ants to grizzly bears, from beetles to falcons, these poisonous and armed-and-dangerous creatures will delight young readers...Teachers and librarians looking to teach the Common Core Standards and expository writing will delight in this book and the dynamic way it will engage children.
—School Library Journal

Reluctant readers in particular will have a field day with this, and you can easily bring a booktalk crowd to rapt silence by sharing a juicy snippet.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Readers with a taste for the grisly realism of nature will revel in the latest Davies and Layton collaboration...Davies commendably balances spectacle and science, providing accounts that are rich with factual detail and admiration for the diversity and realities of life. ...Layton’s cartoon illustrations skillfully lighten the tone, as animals in the throes of death or dismemberment often provide humorous asides and jokes
—The Horn Book

Layton’s wacky cartoon illustrations are ... a major high point that elevates the text to a high-interest timbre, offering an irreverent wink that kids will find irresistible. While on the surface it is a book of animal facts and trivia, a coherent message is implied throughout—that although some animals may be scary or ferocious, ecosystems are built on interdependence, and conservation efforts must include all creatures in any given environment.
—Booklist

[F]illed with fun and informative facts about animals from various habitats, well-known and lesser-known. The cartoon drawings and dialogue provide a comical way of showing the animals which enhances the information being presented. ... Boys will eat this book up.
—Library Media Connection

This deceptively small picture book is jam-packed with fascinating information with plenty of the ick factor to keeps kids (and adults) turning the pages. The fun illustrations are a real bonus and suit the writing to a T.
—San Francisco Book Review

From the Publisher

Nature isn’t always pretty—in fact, sometimes it’s downright nasty. In this squat volume, the sixth nature-themed collaboration from this duo, Davies strikes a light tongue-in-cheek tone to explore hostile animal behavior. Layton’s characteristically deadpan cartoons show animals using an arsenal of defense mechanisms and demonstrating predatory prowess. A viper injects poison into a mouse, a bombardier beetle “sprays boiling toxic liquid out of its rear end,” and a crocodile devours a bespectacled zebra (“The crocodile then performs the so-called ‘death roll,’ clamping its jaws around a body part—such as a head or leg—and spinning in the water to twist it off”). While educating readers about the fascinating ways animals kill one another, Davies also speaks to the importance of nature conservation and the human impact on wildlife. Ages 8–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 3–6—This humorous and fact-filled book is chock-full of fun. From ants to grizzly bears, from beetles to falcons, these poisonous and armed-and-dangerous creatures will delight young readers. With hilarity and information, the opening pages describe the HDR, or Human Deadliness Rating, of various creatures. The book is enhanced with full-page illustrations and cartoon panels that lighten the text and make the content less alarming. The descriptions of "the ways animals kill each other" are handled flawlessly for children. It's important to note that the book also addresses the crucial roles predators play in their various ecosystems, how humans are threatening some habitats, how some of the poisons are actually lifesaving, and how humans have a responsibility to keep all of these animals safe. The illustration-filled index and glossary add to the book's usefulness. Teachers and librarians looking to teach the Common Core Standards and expository writing will delight in this book and the dynamic way it will engage children.—Nancy Jo Lambert, Ruth Borchardt Elementary, Plano, TX

School Library Journal

Davies (Talk, Talk, Squawk!, 2011) rips viciously into another popular topic with this gallery of animals "decked out for killing"--from tiny venomous spiders to big cats for whom humans are just slow-moving "meals-on-legs." Dishing up appetizing facts and observations ("The pack may start to eat even before their victim is actually dead"), the author opens big with "Killer Cats," feral canines, sharks and other carnivorous macro-creatures. Then she seats a guest list of such smaller fry as owls, snakes, "[t]eeny and [t]oxic" box jellyfish and spiders around Nature's table, leaving room for latecomers with defense mechanisms like noxious sprays (bombardier beetle) or poison skin (puffer fish). Following delicious cautionary notes about smart and stupid human behavior around wild animals (and an off-flavored remark about the dangers of working in "poor tropical countries"), she rounds out the banquet with assorted amuse-bouches relating to the importance of predators to ecosystems and the potential uses of venoms in medical research. Layton garnishes his doodled cartoons with can't-end-well dialogue ("here snakey, snakey…") in balloons and occasional splashes of gore. Despite all this, all these creatures look like Twinkies next to the unmentioned microbial clan. Easily digestible, if not particularly nutritious. (index, glossary) (Nonfiction. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews