Review by Booklist Review
Park introduces eight animals with unusual physical adaptations that allow them to survive and thrive in the wild. For each, she presents a succinct, rhyming couplet ("I swim for fish by flapping my flippers. I grab them in my bill . . . / with my grippers") and an inset further explaining the accommodation (bristles on penguins' tongues help them grip food). Crisp, full-color stock photos are used throughout, allowing readers to view these animals and their distinctive attributes, often up close. Some animals will be familiar (penguins and owls with bristly tongues and strong legs); others less so (red-eyed tree frogs, platypuses, and pangolins, which utilize double eyelids, venomous spurs, and foot-long tongues, respectively); and a few will certainly be new (sarcastic fringe heads, colugos, and pacu sport large mouths, parachute skin, and grinding teeth, respectively). A final spread asks readers to contemplate their own singularity. Appended with a glossary and further reading, this makes a good choice for primary science units emphasizing diversity in the animal world.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
"Do you see our adaptations -- / a tail, / a horn, / a claw, / or beak? / Others aren't so easy to spot. / Can you find them? / Take a peek!" With this introduction, Park invites readers to learn about animal structures that may not be observable until an animal opens its mouth, spreads its limbs, or brushes back its fur or feathers. Page layouts are designed to first hint at the featured adaptation. When the page is turned, an intriguing body part is revealed, accompanied by an accessible explanation of how that part is used by the animal to eat, maneuver, defend, or attack. Crisp, zoomed-in stock photographs of the animals, including pangolins, penguins, owls, and red-eyed tree frogs, clearly show the fine details of their distinctive anatomies. The book ends with a prompt for readers to relate the scientific concept of structure and function to their own bodies: "What's something / we might not see / that makes you, YOU?" (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Wild animals show off adaptations that are not apparent at first, or sometimes even second, sight. If the big, bright, close-up nature photos (mostly stock) and effective use of page turns to rev up the drama don't rivet younger audiences, Park's pithy verse should do the trick. Here's a platypus, for example: "I might look cute / with my BILL and fur. / But hidden from sight… // IS A VENOMOUS SPUR!" Likewise, the wonderfully named sarcastic fringehead fish has a mouth that snaps open like a folded umbrella to enormous size ("When challenged, / I won't step aside. / I'm ready to FIGHT / when I… // OPEN WIDE!"). Other (less terrifying) revelations include a penguin gaping to expose a tongue covered in sharp, stiff bristles; a snowy owl dangling surprisingly long legs; a squirrel-like colugo extending broad gliding membranes; a pangolin with a long pink tongue protruding from its mouth (kept in the creature's chest); and a swimming tiger's webbed toes. The author adds explanatory notes with each entry and, along with a closing invitation to readers to identify their own hidden adaptations, offers several leads to broader surveys of the topic. (This book was reviewed digitally.) High marks for presentation and showy cast alike. (glossary, photo credits) (Informational picture book. 5-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
