Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page,


Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have a talent for presenting the animal world in endlessly interesting ways for readers young and old, as they prove once again with Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do. Jenkins's colorful collage-style illustrations get up close and personal with the sometimes strange faces of animals from all over the world in this new book, which has a great premise that makes this non-fiction book read like a picture book.


Each page features an animal, the text always starting with something like, "Dear mandrill, Why is your nose so colorful?" The animals's replies are short and to the point and written in the animals's own voices. The mandrill answers his question with, "My bright read and blue nose tells other mandrills that I'm a full-grown male monkey, so they'd better not mess with me. My rear end is pretty colorful, too, but I'd rather not talk about it."


Jenkins and Page include a wide range of animals, from furry to freaky. A hamster is asked about his fat cheeks and an axolotl is asked about the feathers growing out of his head. A caterpillar, squirrel, pufferfish and blobfish also get the third degree, along with the sun bear, the hyrax and many other animals. And, while the book itself is very entertaining, my favorite part is the 2-page infographic at the end of the book that shows the animals in silhouette, giving readers a better idea of their size, and corresponding globes that show where each creature lives. 

Thorough and engrossing as always, I can't wait to see what this team turns their focus on next!

Source: Review Copy

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