Review by Booklist Review
The award-winning duo behind countless picture books on animals delivers another attractive, high-interest read for inquisitive children. Commonly asked questions (e.g., "Why do camels have a hump?"; "Why do zebras have stripes?") and related musings (e.g., "Why are naked mole rats naked?"; "Why do wombats have cube-shaped poop?") are printed in a large font, each followed by a small paragraph clearly presenting a concise theory or explanation. For instance, one reason zebras may have stripes is that it makes it harder for predators to pick out a single zebra to chase. As in the pair's previous collaborations, textured collage illustrations lend context and wonder. Set against a plain background, animals are rendered in a large scale or through focused illustrations, such as of a giraffe's neck, a proboscis monkey's nose, and giant squid's eye. Smaller insets with the animal next to a human woman or human hand show the animal's size through scale. Back matter with thumbnails of each creature offers more details and surprising facts. A browsable offering for a wide range of readers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Economic, conversational text answers a straightforward query on each page of this signature-style q&a book from Page and the late Jenkins (What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?). About the titular question, "African elephants live in a hot climate, and they need a way to cool off. Their huge ears act like radiators, shedding excess heat." Meanwhile, evocatively textured, ingeniously framed digital collages spotlight the animals. One spread zooms in on a zebra's back, which seems to ripple across the pages. Later, a giant squid's smoky black pupil, shown surrounded by a yellow-green cornea, pops out from the verso, while the recto shows the creature's dappled blood-orange skin. As the title indicates, many questions are standard issue for the format, but a focus on unusual animals and intriguing traits-- the aye-aye's long middle finger, the wombat's "cube-shaped poop"--coupled with the stunning graphics, make this a fitting addition to the collaborators' oeuvre. Each page includes a proportional human-to-animal diagram; back matter builds on the text. Ages 4--8. (Nov.) ■
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--4--Another highly engaging, fact-filled, and fascinating look into the world of animals from celebrated collaborators. The visuals, stunning collages that bring the featured animals right off the page, are both captivating and informative. The text focuses on high-interest, student-friendly questions ("Why do wombats have cube-shaped poop?), and the answers are delivered in conversational, memorable language. Teachers in an animal unit could use the questions to activate student thinking prior to reading the short but detailed answers that are further expanded upon in the back matter. VERDICT Readers will find the menagerie of animals covered acutely interesting and the art will draw in animal lovers of all ages. Highly recommended.--John Scott
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Caldecott-winning duo offers eye-opening insights into some nonobvious animal behaviors and features. Nineteen creatures, arranged in no obvious order, strike dignified poses in full-body or partial views here, but readers may be just as taken by the accompanying nature notes. There, the co-authors/illustrators supply several answers to the titular question and a few speculative benefits about zebras' stripes, for instance; they go on to explain why bats hang upside down and provide credible reasons why wombat poop is cube-shaped and why hippos fling theirs far and wide with their tails. For budding naturalists with a need for further details, the animals are measured for scale by small adjacent silhouettes matched to human ones; fuller accounts of size, weight, diet, and habitat are included in a closing section. Co-author/illustrator Jenkins died in 2021, which may explain why some of the art, such as a rather diaphanous naked mole rat and a sketchy red-eyed tree frog, has an unfinished feel; still, the majestic dromedary, an extreme close-up of a giant squid's eye, and even a giraffe represented by just a segment of neck are astonishingly realistic and aglow with the presence that marks Jenkins' best work. A bibliography closes out the work. Absorbing and enlightening. (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
