Weirdest animals on the planet

Gr 3--6--This informational book examines the peculiarities of animals. Filled with bright colors and photos of weird or lesser-known animals, this text is arranged into 12 sections touching on topics such as weirdest names, weird relationships, weird animal myths, weird poop, and more. Although the separation into sections is ambitious, the book feels disorganized. Facts and images of animals exist within sections they do not seem to belong to. The use of bright colors throughout helps make things inviting, but the placement of informational text boxes and captions is somewhat detracting as it occasionally covers part of the animal in the image. An extensive index is included, allowing readers to quickly and easily find specific animals within the pages. As the text is seemingly broken into sections, the inclusion of a table of contents would have been a nice addition. VERDICT While this book is not recommended as a first purchase due to its disorganized formatting, it will circulate well in children's collections where books on unique animals are popular and desired.--Misty Schattle

A colorful guide to oddities in the animal world. This album of animal photographs and facts follows the format of previous titles in this National Geographic series, such asDeadliest Animals on the Planet (2023). From the blue-ringed octopus, whose "shiny blue rings light up," to three birds with astonishing hairstyles--the hoopoe, the Victoria crowned pigeon, and the cock of the rock--every page has a critter or group of critters with a surprising habit, characteristic, or appearance. Each unusual creature is shown close up, either filling the page or within a circular frame. Text boxes and more circles describe each animal's peculiarities. Sometimes an animal has a brief exclamatory comment, such as "bizarre!" or "no way!!" The wordweird also appears often. While the text is fairly challenging to read, there isn't much of it, and those attracted by individual images may be willing to work to puzzle out the short paragraphs. The facts are engaging: The tapir, a land animal, likes to poop underwater, and the goblin shark has jaws that move like a slingshot. There's no apparent organization underlying the presentation of the myriad creatures, both vertebrates and invertebrates, although the index does group them into broader categories ("marine mammals," "rodents," "worms") as well as listing some animals individually. An animal-loving browsers' delight. (photo credits)(Nonfiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.