Strangest Animals: (Level 2)

by Thea Feldman, American Museum of Natural History

Overview

Animals that glow, that make nests from spit, that change shape and color, that ooze thick, gooey slime: How strange! Meet some creatures that have unique and unusual talents. From the glass frog with a see-through body to a fish that happily hides inside a deadly plant, every living thing shown proves that truth is stranger than fiction!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402777905
Publisher:	Sterling Children's Books
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Series:	Amer Museum of Nat History Easy Readers Series , #1
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	5 - 6 Years

About the Author

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is one of the largest and most respected museums in the world. Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has collected more than 32 million specimens and artifacts relating to the natural world and human cultures. The Museum showcases its amazing treasures in the exhibit halls, and behind the scenes a scientific staff of more than 200 is at work on research and new discoveries. Millions of people from around the world visit AMNH each year. Plan a trip to the Museum, home of the worlds largest collection of dinosaur fossils, or visit online at amnh.org.

Editorial Reviews

2013-09-01
High-quality photography compensates, at least in part, for inadequate commentary in this diverse gallery of exotic creatures and behaviors. In the sharp, bright pictures, an alien-looking anglerfish dangles its glowing lure, a hagfish coils within its cloak of icky slime, and a mimic octopus miraculously morphs into an apparent flounder. These and 13 other land and sea animals pose in riveting close-ups. Alas, the text is not quite so clear. Along with leaving budding naturalists to sound out words like "anemone" and "arowana" on their own, Feldman adds rhetorical interjections ("What a strange way for a bird to get a meal!") rather than systematic information about each animal's range or physical characteristics. She also both fails to explain what an arowana actually is (the close-up in this case being a little too extreme) and, with the line "a lizard can break its tail off and run away," misleadingly implies that any lizard can do this. Mary Kay Carson's Deadly and Dangerous (978-1-4549-0629-2), publishing simultaneously in the same series, offers even more rousing visuals (notably, in this case, gruesome scenes of predators chowing down) and a somewhat more informative narrative text. Instead of much-needed leads to further information, both volumes close with an unrelated profile of a staff scientist at the American Museum of Natural History and feature a link to the publisher's site. Plenty of eye candy but low on nutritional facts. (Informational early reader. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews