We're Not Weird: Structure and Function in the Animal Kingdom

by Michael Garland

Overview

Meet nature’s most extraordinary looking creatures. But they aren’t weird!

Birds with blue feet, fish that walk, unicorns in the sea, and more! Learn how these animals' quirks help them survive. Perfect for budding naturalists who are always ready to share a cool (or gross) animal fact. 

Very hard scales protect me, and my long tongue is perfect for eating ants. When I feel threatened, I roll myself into a ball. I am a Pangolin.

See these animals’ amazing body parts in vibrant and detailed woodcut illustrations, from the thorny dragon’s spiky skin to the star-nosed mole's twenty-two feelers. Read how these creatures' unique traits help them thrive and survive in their environments. Learn where they live, what they eat, how they protect themselves, and more. 

With easy-to-read text vetted by an expert, this book aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards on adaptation, structure, and function for kindergarten through 3rd grade. With supplementary information on each animal’s habitat and diet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823455171
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	111 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Michael Garland has written and illustrated many books for children, including Fish Had a Wish (Kirkus Reviews Top 25 Children's Books), Tugboat (Best Children's Books for Family Literacy), Pizza Mouse (Junior Library Guild Selection), and Birds Make Nests (Correll Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Informational Text and NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book). His art for James Patterson's Santa Kid inspired Saks Fifth Avenue's Christmas Holiday windows.

Editorial Reviews

01/16/2023

Spotlighting unique adaptive features, Garland profiles fish, fowl, insects, and mammals whose “special body parts” help them “survive and thrive” just like any other animal that needs “food, air, and water to live.” Fact-filled first-person accounts begin with each animal’s characteristic before the owner reveals itself: “I hope to attract a mate. That’s why I dance and show off my bright blue webbed feet. I am a blue-footed booby.” Realistic earth-toned art with scratchboard textures highlights the attribute described: a star-nosed mole nudges out a worm; a platypus appears with food in its “electro-sensitive” bill. Creatures such as the desert tortoise and narwhal are well-known; others, however, including the tusked babirusa and the crocodilian gharial, make for delightfully atypical picture book fodder. The impressive utility of the features on display reinforces the group’s opening and closing declaration: “We’re not weird.” Facts and a glossary conclude. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Delightfully atypical picture book fodder. The impressive utility of the features on display reinforces the group’s opening and closing declaration: ‘We’re not weird.’"—Publishers Weekly

"The woodcut-style illustrations are captivating, colorful, and detailed. Their attractiveness will draw young readers and animal lovers alike to this book. This would be a great choice for a picture book introduction to animal adaptations and will appeal to teachers who run units and/or lessons on this topic."—School Library Journal
 
"Animal enthusiasts will be enthralled."—Booklist

"The art is something to see. . . ."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-09-28
Twenty wild creatures strut distinctive horns, tongues, feet, scales, and other prominent features.

From the hummingbird hawk-moth to the blue-footed booby, the aptly named blobfish to the narwhal and the babirusa, land and sea creatures from various parts of the world pose with strong, boldly textured presence in natural settings in Garland’s digitally colored woodcuts—mostly as single subjects, many chasing or chowing down on favored prey, and two (a male frigatebird and the aforementioned booby) posturing before prospective mates. But if the pictures reward attention, the accompanying commentary generally just singles out one physical feature for each and offers, at best, sketchy explanations of its function. “My large nose keeps out dust and helps me breathe,” says the saiga antelope. (Don’t most noses do that?) “I have large tusks, but I don’t use them for fighting,” says a babirusa, leaving readers in the dark about what they are used for. Similarly unenlightening are opaque follow-up notes, which mention that the Sunda flying lemur “is a cobego and not a lemur” and that jellyfish “are not fish; they are Scyphozoa,” plus a mistaken implication that only male narwhals have tusks. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

The art is something to see, but the perfunctory text reads like an afterthought. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews