Crafty And Cruel Creatures

If you were to ask a group of elementary or middle school (maybe even high school) students which nonfiction area has interested them the most in their reading lives; books about animals, wild and domestic, living and extinct, would probably be at the top of their lists.  Granted the particular creature (or creatures) which captivates them at any given time might be different, but books about animals are a constant favorite.  You've never seen excitement quite like the excitement of a student who has recently discovered some new fact about a specific animal.

In the autumn of 2017 renowned author illustrator Steve Jenkins released the first two books in a new series, Extreme Animals, for early readers.  Deadliest!: 20 Dangerous Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 10, 2017) focuses on those animals who prey and protect using the most dangerous means. Usually the recipients of their actions are other animals but humans are not entirely safe.

Danger!
For millions of years, animals have been killing and eating other animals.

The bull shark, growing as large at eleven and one half feet, lives in shallow salt and fresh water.  They are not picky eaters.  Never make the mistake of assuming a large animal like the hippopotamus is slow.  They can move as fast as a horse.  The king cobra, the largest venomous snake in the world, does not seek out humans but nevertheless is responsible for

hundreds---perhaps thousands---of human deaths every year.

If you happen to be hiking in southern Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay or Uruguay be careful not to lean against any trees.  The giant silk moth caterpillar, which is about 2 inches long, has spines on its body which inject venom.  Fatalities can happen.  Can you imagine a bird big enough and strong enough to deliver a lethal kick? It makes its home in Australia and New Guinea.  The most surprising of the deadliest animals are among the most plentiful and one of them is beloved.


Trickiest!: 19 Sneaky Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 10, 2017) presents those critters who survive by their wits.  It can be a deliberate cry, camouflage, physical traits or unique actions.  They do whatever is necessary to live another day.

Survival can be tricky.
For most animals, finding food and avoiding danger is a full-time job.

In Central and southern Africa a bird, the fork-tailed drongo, sounds the alarm if predators are near.  Other animals flee but sometimes this bird does it when no danger is close in order to eat food left by the fleeing animals.  An alligator snapping turtle uses its tongue to imitate a worm, thus enticing fish.  Its jaws can bite off a human finger.  Did you know there is a bug called the wasp beetle which looks just like a wasp?  Predators quickly loose their appetite.

A leafy sea dragon is no mythical creature but a type of fish with the appearance of seaweed.  On the island of Madagascar there is a lizard with a tail which mimics old leaves.  What if you had wings which helped you blend into tree bark but if frightened you could open them up, revealing eyes on those very wings.  These large eyes turn this Io moth from prey into possible predator.

In both of these books there is a contents at the front of the book.  For each featured creature in addition to the main paragraph there is at least one extra bit of information.  A world map indicates its geographic location along with statements of the place and what it eats.  A scale supplies its size in comparison to an average human or a human hand.

In the Deadliest! at the close of the book is a list of the animals, the number of human deaths per year and more facts.  A two-page diagram at the end of the Trickiest! displays all the animals in groups by the tricks they employ.  Both books have a glossary and a bibliography of sources.


In each of these books the opened dust jacket and book case are identical, showcasing four of the included animals on the front, right.  To the left, on the back, a single animal is featured and readers are given a peek at a single creature presentation page in miniature.  We are also told about two other titles, Stinkiest! and Speediest!, to be released in the spring 2018.

With each page turn Steve Jenkins in his signature torn-and cut-paper collage creates animals lifelike enough to fly, jump, crawl, slither, or swim off the page. For each animal he chooses to give them two pages or a single page.  His design and layout are impeccable, employing balance with the use of circles for close-ups of details or as placeholders for text.


The Deadliest!: 20 Dangerous Animals and the Trickiest!: 19 Sneaky Animals written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins are outstanding early readers.  This author illustrator has a knack for picking those animals with the most engaging information.  Readers will read these over and over until every single word is memorized.  I highly recommend them for your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Steve Jenkins and his other memorable titles, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  He has information on how he makes his books.  If you go to these specific titles, there are interior illustrations for you two view for each one.


I invite you to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to read about the titles selected this week by those participating in the 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

5 Faves: Expository Nonfiction

With more than one hundred eighty science books to her credit author Melissa Stewart more than deserves her award-winning status.  She is known for her captivating writing style specifically geared to the intended audience but all ages can learn from her fascinating factual presentations.  Her research is meticulous and authentic.

Starting on this date, September 11, 2017, Melissa is hosting a series of blog posts based on expository nonfiction on her blog, Celebrate Science.  She spoke about expository nonfiction at length in a Nerdy Book Club post.  I am honored to be the first educator contributing to this series.

I think you will enjoy my five favorite selections.  They are centered on the animal kingdom.  The start of the school year has clearly demonstrated the demand for animal titles is as strong as ever at all age levels.  Happy reading to you and the readers in your life!

At The Top

There are hunters.  There are the hunted.  Sometimes the roles are reversed; the hunted becoming hunters.  It is about survival in the kingdom of animal.  With this being said, there are stories about predators not behaving instinctively.  They, for reasons we cannot completely understand, do not harm those they would normally consume.  They might even assume the role of nurturer.

There are also those hunters who are rarely, if ever, hunted.  In his newest title, Apex Predators: The World's Deadliest Hunters, Past And Present (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 6, 2017) Steve Jenkins presents portraits of some of the most fearsome creatures to have inhabited this planet.  They are, in a word, terrifying.

Predators are animals that kill and eat other animals.  The first predator lived in the sea about 600 million years ago.

Over time, from then until now, predators have adapted as prey adapted.  As protections for the hunted increased hunters honed their skills and physical characteristics shifted.  This is how apex predators in their respective habitats evolved.  We are introduced to twenty-four of those hunters.  We begin with the top members from today and yesterday, the Siberian tiger and the Tyrannosaurus rex.  Can you imagine a creature large and strong enough to

bite off 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of flesh with one snap of its jaws?

Six modern day predators begin the narrative, alternating with one on land and the other, on the opposite page, living in the sea.  The first is ten feet long, as the largest lizard and the second is twenty feet long with multiple rows of teeth numbering in the hundreds and thousands over a lifetime.  Living on the continent of Africa, these pack animals, although smaller than other predators, get their status as deadly killers from hunting in greater numbers.

In case you might be swimming in a river or stream in tropical South America someday, beware of a shocking resident.  The fossa only lives on the island of Madagascar.  Its climbing abilities give it a distinct advantage.  Prey are no match for the largest freshwater fish.  Can you name it?

The remaining sixteen animals are extinct.  They are listed in chronological order beginning with the most recent member that left this planet 11,000 years ago.  This giant short-faced bear stood at twelve feet tall.  Next in line is the terror bird rising up at ten feet tall.  It did not fly but

could run as fast as a horse.

Did you know there was a saber-tooth that had a pouch like other marsupials?  How about a bird with a wing span of twenty-three feet that gulped prey whole?  Can you fathom a snake that was forty-eight feet long and

weighed more than one ton?

As each extinct predator is named you can't help but wonder how anything else survived.  As we keep going back in time, the animals named end with an Anomalocaris, 

"strange shrimp".

At this time animals had not begun to live on land.  The text closes with suggestions of matches between present day predators and those from the past.  Who would win?  Jenkins does include a final paragraph at the end naming the deadliest apex predator to have ever lived.  He states his reasons for this statement.


As in his previous titles Steve Jenkins has a knack for including fascinating creatures and facts sure to intrigue readers.  When the first thing readers read about a past predator is that it was ten feet tall and as swift as a horse, Jenkins has your attention.  His choice to begin with the two greatest predators then and now, followed by those alive today and then taking those extinct and placing them in chronological order is an excellent technique for pacing his narrative.

For each creature we are given an overview as short as a single sentence or as long as four sentences.  At the bottom of each page in a smaller font, almost like a conversational aside, more facts are revealed.  Here is a sample passage.

Sea Monster
During the age of the dinosaurs, the seas were ruled by the Mosasaurs (moh-suh-sawrs) --- enormous predatory reptiles.  One of the largest was Tylosaurus (ty-lo-sahr-us).  Its formidable jaws were ten feet (3 meters) long, and it ate just about anything it wanted to, including other marine reptiles, fish, and dinosaurs that ventured into the water.


Two things flash through this reader's mind looking at the unfolded matching dust jacket and book case.  The first is I am so thankful this predator on the front, the right, is no longer living among us.  (Do you think its prey run as fast as it could to get away, froze in fear or died on the spot?) The second thing is, not for the first time, I wonder how Steve Jenkins can make his animals look as if they are ready to jump off the paper or pages. (On the dust jacket every element is raised.)

To the left, on the back, three other predators are featured.  Their heads and upper bodies are extending from the left edge and spine.  The text gives us a little bit of information about each of them.  The bold red canvas from the jacket and case is used for the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page, on a yellow background, two predators, from the present and past, appear above and frame the text.

Throughout the body of the book a crisp white background provides the best way to showcase the torn-and-cut-paper collage used to make these pictures.  You can't look at these and not be amazed at the detail and animation present in them.  Each animal is a study in their stunning physical characteristics.  Jenkins may choose to show us only the head or the entire body.  In the bottom corner of each page a comparison is made with the size of the animal and the size of an average human being.  The animal's size is given in feet and meters.

One of the most frightening of the illustrations is the first picture included with the introduction.  It is a close-up of the terror bird (now extinct).  We are shown only the head and a portion of the neck.  The feathers look as though a wind recently ruffled them.  The eye is piercing with a spark-of-life light.  The beak is downright treacherous.  Jenkins does include the bird again so we can view the entire body, ten feet tall.


Readers who crave nonfiction will pass this book, person to person, never giving it a minute on bookshelves.  Apex Predators: The World's Deadliest Hunters, Past And Present written and illustrated by Steven Jenkins is captivating from beginning to end.  You will want to have it on your professional bookshelves.  I would be willing to predict readers who don't normally read nonfiction will have a hard time resisting this title.  If you are a fan of Steve Jenkins' work, you'll want a copy for home too.  At the close of the book a bibliography of books and websites is shown.

To learn more about Steve Jenkins and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  This page on his website is all about his bookmaking in general.  This link takes you to the process for creating this specific title.  This document is an educator's guide for nine of Steve Jenkins' books including this title.  Four years ago Steve was interviewed at MackinVIACommunity.


Make sure you take a few moments to stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected by bloggers participating in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

The Significance Of Sound

When a sporting dog takes up residence in your home, if you weren't already, you become an astute observer of nature.  As you are outdoors in all kinds of weather, your meteorology skills heighten to avoid the unwelcome snow squall or lightning strike.  When out walking if your canine companion comes to a quick halt, you need to do the same.  Listen carefully.  If the bird song suddenly stops or increases to shrieks, danger is lurking.  Even though your sense of smell is far inferior, take a few moments every so often to breathe deeply.  An encounter with a skunk never ends well for you or your pooch pal.

Without realizing it your interest in animals, not only in your area, but all over the world grows.  You develop a need to know.  Can An Aardvark Bark? (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, June 13, 2017), written by esteemed science writer Melissa Stewart with illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Steve Jenkins, explores sounds made by animals in a variety of habitats.

Can an aardvark bark?
No, but it can grunt.

If you happen to be standing in the African grasslands at night, you might hear one grunting as it looks for ants or termites.  An aardvark is not alone in using this sound.  Some animals grunt when they play or to greet another member of their group.  Unfortunately for the oyster toadfish when it grunts, all the care of staying hidden vanishes.

Speaking of barking, seals bark but don't squeal.  They do this to defend their territory.  Other animals bark in warning, to announce their presence, or to attract a mate.  Boars don't roar, but they squeal.  (Can you detect a clever pattern?)

Like a group of children on the playground, they and Abert's towhees squeal when excited.  The wily margay uses it to lure in a meal.  Whining, growling, bellowing and laughter are discussed in equal measure.

Baby animals like black bears and beavers whine for more than one reason. (Does this remind you of anyone?)  Can you guess which animal growls like a lion during mating season?  It's not even in the feline family.  You might be startled to hear the sound a giraffe makes when a little one is lost.  And exactly like humans a laughing kookaburra or a gorilla laughs when it wants to be noticed or is happy.  This is fascinating, factual and just plain fun.


For nineteen years author Melissa Stewart has been acquainting readers with the results of her passion for and meticulous research of all forms of science.  In this most recent publication her search for answers to a simple question about sound reveals to readers mysteries of the animal world.  The narrative beat she makes with the single sound word asked in one section and then answered in another elevates interest.  When she pauses that cadence we are more curious.  What will readers discover next?  For each sound, seven in total, she talks about five animals.  Here is another question with an answer followed by a single paragraph.

Can a dingo bellow?
No, but it can growl.

A coastal giant salamander may look like a peaceful creature, but it knows how to put up a fight.  The angry amphibian arches its back, growls at its rival, and lashes out with its poisonous tail.


Gather close readers to recognize the intricate care given to the details on each one of these animals by author, illustrator and artist Steve Jenkins.  Look at the layers and color variations in the skin/fur of the aardvark.  Can you see the tiny whiskers?  Even though his animals are frozen for the page, they look as if they can leap to life any second.  (Steve Jenkins usually adds what I like to call the spark of life in each of his animals, the tiny piece of white in the eyes.)  The body of the aardvark continues across the spine to the left on the back of the dust jacket.

Beneath the text on the title page the aardvark is featured in a circle.  This circle motif continues at the conclusion of the book as readers are asked if they can make all seven sounds.  Other animals appear in those circles.

Using crisp white backgrounds to draw our attention to the creatures, Steve Jenkins uses two pages for the first animal highlighted in the question and answer.  The following two pages are dedicated to four other individuals.  Many times he will have them placed within a portion of their habitat; water, mud, or a branch.  As pointed out previously, the texture readers see with the cut-and-torn-paper collage technique for the images will have them reaching out as if they can actually feel the fur or skin or pulling back as in the case of more dangerous animals.

One of my favorite of several illustrations is the two pages given to the wild boar.  It is leaping from the left side, across the gutter and to the right side as if running off the page.  All four legs are extended with the tail raised.  Its mouth is open showing us the tusks.  The fur is thick and curled.  I can almost hear it racing toward its destination.


It can be safely said readers world-wide may have laughed in delight when they saw the names for the collaboration to complete this title.  Melissa Stewart and Steve Jenkins are well-known in the nonfiction children's literature world.  Can An Aardvark Bark?  will inform and inspire further research.  At the close of the book Selected Sources and For Further Reading sections are shown.  Melissa Stewart designed a Storytime Guide.

To learn more about Melissa Stewart and Steve Jenkins and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  To view interior images follow this link to the publisher's website.  Melissa Stewart is featured or has written posts about nonfiction recently at Kirby Larson Friend Friday, Patricia Saunders, Two Writing Teachers, Cynsations, and the Nerdy Book Club.  The cover reveal and a blog post about this title are found at Kid Lit Frenzy.  Enjoy the book trailer.




With this link you can view me reading a portion of this title to students in Colby Sharp's third grade classroom.


Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the titles selected this week by other bloggers participating in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Nutty Tree Inhabitants

After the last of the leaves fell to the ground this autumn, you can stand in the center of my back yard and see eight squirrel nests.  No wonder nearly any time of the day during the summer one or more can be seen scampering across the yard.  Sometimes it looks as though two are playing a fast and furious game of tag.  It soon became obvious size is not an indicator of dominance.  The smallest red squirrel seems to always be chasing the larger fox squirrels.

You would think with winter, by the calendar, nearly a month old all the squirrels would be set for the season but the other day before a particular bout of bitter temperatures, one scampered across the yard with a bunch of leaves to bolster a nest.  Watching it move up the trunk, it did not go to one of the many leafy apartments but to a hole in one of the trees.  Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep (Henry Holt and Company, November 1, 2016) written by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is the fourth collaboration by this team combining poetry and art to deliver facts to readers.

Squirrels wrestle.
Squirrels leap.
Squirrels climb.
Squirrels sleep.

In this title we become acquainted with gray, fox, red and flying squirrels.  Some traits they share in common, other characteristics are particularly specialized to only one.  Their tails are more than a fluffy adornment.  They function as protection from the weather and keep them centered as they scoot from place to place high above the ground.  Their eyes, noses, jaws and paws function with purpose.

I wonder if their chirping is simple chatter, code for danger or perhaps they are calling out to one another in greeting.  All you have to do is walk across an area inhabited by squirrels to see evidence of their work.  Nuts, whole or in pieces, are everywhere.  You can see small holes as they bury or dig up their stores.  There might be some new oak trees sprouting in the spring.  Who knew squirrels are nature's gardeners?

If you happen to catch one midrun across the grass, in a flash they disappear up a tree trunk.  Have they gone to the top or only the other side, hiding?  With all the energy they expend during the day, it's no wonder they curl up as night descends to rest and relax.


Twelve poems supply a very squirrel-like cadence to readers.  Each four-line narrative rhymes on the second and fourth line.  April Pulley Sayre, a keen observer of nature and in this case squirrels, presents them exactly as they are seen out in the world; full of energy, stopping with twitching tails and paws but ready to charge like lightning if needed.  She weaves information into each poem; the purpose of tails, how specific physical characteristics are used by the squirrels, where they stay and rest, how they gather and hoard, and most importantly how they keep the trees they need growing.  They are the forest gardeners.  Here is another sample poem.

Squirrels gather.
Squirrels store.
How many seeds?
More, more, more!


Time and time again, if you happen to be observant in your neighborhood or out walking in the woods, you will have seen a squirrel leaping precisely as pictured by Steve Jenkins on the front of the dust jacket.  His cut-and-torn-paper collage illustrative technique is nearly photographic in detail.  Crossing over the spine leaves, branches and two squirrels frame the three previous collaborations of Sayre and Jenkins.  As in much of his other work, Jenkins uses white space to great advantage.

On the book case hues of brown cover the front and back.  As on the jacket the back highlights the other three titles but close observation shows these are placed on portions of a tree.  Moving to the right, on the front, a sleeping squirrel is shown curled up in a furry ball in its nest.  A pattern of acorns, caps on, caps off, covers the opening and closing endpapers. A two-page picture of squirrels, branches and leaves provides space for the title and verso pages.

For each of the twelve poems Jenkins gives readers a double-page image.  In many of them he frames specific actions within a circle imposed on top of the main illustration.  With his masterful skills he manages to fashion squirrels that literally look ready to leap off the page.  When they look right at the reader on several pages, you can almost hear them chattering at you.  Jenkins cleverly shifts his perspective; sometimes you can get a broader view of the action and then with a page turn, you feel as though you are part of the squirrelish fun.

One of my favorite illustrations is of a squirrel stretching from a tree trunk to gather an acorn.  How they can do that without falling is amazing.  Jenkins captures the stretch perfectly.  Above the oak branches on the right, he features two circular smaller illustrations.  In one a squirrel is looking at us from within a hole in the tree.  In the other a squirrel is curled up in a nest at rest.

Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep written by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is a lively look at these backyard and forest inhabitants.  This collaboration is as fine as the others, encouraging readers to respect and appreciate their world.  At the close of the narrative are four pages of further facts grouped by species in this book, tails as tools, squirrels glide, early life, feeding time, all in the family, tree hole homes, squirrels: the planters, overwhelmed by acorns, conifer seed collectors, squirrel ancestors, helping oaks and animals and old tree neighborhoods.  There is also a list of suggestions for further reading and interesting notices in the news.  This title was selected by the NSTA in their Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12: 2017.

To learn more about April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  If you wish to view some interior images from this title stop by the publisher's website.  Enjoy the book trailer.


If you have not seen their previous titles, Eat Like A Bear and Woodpecker Wham! please read these posts.  All of the books by this team are outstanding.


Please visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see the titles selected by participating bloggers in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.  This week Alyson highlights titles coming in January.

Insider Secrets

Last night the first big storm of the season left behind five inches of snow.  Looking up from shoveling my driveway as the sun was starting to set; I noticed two deer quietly walking down the sidewalk across the street, a doe and an eight-point buck.  We watched each other for several minutes as I moved in rows back and forth tossing snow.

In mere seconds on a turn around I was startled to see they had gone.  They had vanished without a sound.  Not for the first time I wondered about the ability to accomplish something marvelous demonstrated in the animal world.  In a title recently named to the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12:2016 (Books published in 2015) the wife and husband collaborative team of Robin Page and Steve Jenkins reveal fascinating instructions.  How To Swallow A Pig: Step-By-Step Advice From The Animal Kingdom (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 1, 2015) will increase your admiration and respect for these creatures.

So you want to learn how to swallow a pig.  You've come to the right place.  

If you want to ease into this particular bit of knowledge, it is suggested to start out slowly with the less dramatic tricks of the trade.  Seventeen unique techniques are disclosed before the final eighteenth feat.

Teamwork among blue whales, circular swimming and blowing of bubbles, makes for a tasty meal.  An aptly named tailorbird uses creative stitching skills to shape a nest.  You'll look at millipedes differently with the new awareness of their value in the insect-plentiful rainforest.  Although the capuchin monkeys approach might make you utter the word gross.

Bighorn sheep teach us how to woo, crows cleverly crack nuts and beavers engineer a new pond.  Diving into the depths we witness the masquerade of the octopus.  Legs, a beak and spread wings define the hunting prowess of the reddish egret.  Paper manufacturer, mathematical genius, and umbrella engineer might be words used to describe the nesting building skills of a paper wasp.

Do you know why a barn spider spins the same web twice?  Do you know how bowerbirds work like interior designers?  Do you know why velvet monkeys have more than one alarm call?  Do you know why leaf-cutter ants leave a chemical trail?

Camouflage like a member of the tree family if you want to snatch dinner from the water like a crocodile.  Never settle for only one line of defense if you want to survive like an armadillo.  If pit digging is your style follow the lead of an ant lion.

The western grebe could teach contestants on Dancing with the Stars a move or two.  You most definitely won't want to engage in a hugging competition with a python.  Nothing compares to learning from members of the animal community.


For each creature Robin Page and Steve Jenkins use the repetitive words

How to ...
like a ...

This is followed by a captivating descriptive paragraph inviting the readers, if they desire, to follow their numbered steps to accomplish the same results as the mentioned animal.  The matter-of-fact conversational suggestions will have you believing you might blow a bubble net, smash heads with a rival or enjoy a

fungus feast.

Here are some excerpts from the

How to
Spin a Web
Like a Spider

...Before you start, however, you'll need to find a protected place to build your web, and---this is the tricky part---you'll have to learn how to spin silk threads.

1 Cast a line.
Once you've found the right spot, cast a single silk thread into the air.  If you're lucky, the breeze will catch it and it will snag on a nearby branch or other object.
2 Make a loop.
Walk across the first thread and spin another that droops to form a U.


The python coiled around the title, author and illustrator text on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case is stunning.  The placement of the tail and head and using the patterned skin as a frame is a truly eye-catching design.  On the back, to the left, on a background of the same rusty red as found on the front are six white circles.  Each features a portion of a different illustration from the interior.  The title font hue covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page the image from the front jacket and case is repeated with a noticeable change.  All that remains of the python is an "s" portion of the tail.  The reptile is on the move.

White space showcases the torn-and-cut-paper collage art of Steve Jenkins.  The tiny details and the play of light and shadow creating life-like eyes are astounding.  The set of instructions may be placed on a single page or span two pages.  For each number a separate image is shown.

One of my favorite series of illustrations is for the tailorbird.  As the bird selects a leaf we see him on a branch coming from the top of a page.  Then it has moved to work the two edges of the leaf together with spider silk.  As the holes are poked in the leaf edges and found material is used to sew them together the angle of the pictures changes.  The final visual is larger as the tailorbird flies gathering soft items to line the nest.


It's understandable in addition to being on the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12:2016 (Books published in 2015), How To Swallow A Pig: Step-by-Step Advice From The Animal Kingdom written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is also one of the Commended Books on the 2016 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize Finalists list.  At the close of the book several pages highlight more facts about each of the animals.  There is also a short bibliography.

If you desire to learn more about Robin Page and Steve Jenkins please visit their website by following the link attached to the first name.  Attached to the second name are pages dedicated to the making of this book. Don't miss the book, reading it aloud or chatting about the information found at their website.

Please stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by Alyson Beecher to see the other titles selected by bloggers this week who are participating in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Rat-A-Tat-Tat

Mother Nature has a marvelous checks and balances system in place.  In northern Michigan our ash trees are dying in large numbers due to the Emerald Ash Borer.  Consequently we have an increased variety of woodpeckers that have set up residence.

This spring a Pileated Woodpecker flew in for a landing on the birch tree right outside my front picture window.  It was so close I wanted to reach out to touch it.  We have little Downy Woodpeckers dashing about on a daily basis.  While probably not new to the neighborhood but more visible lately is the Northern Flicker who likes to roam my lawn as well as the surrounding trees looking for food.

One of my strongly held beliefs, as I have mentioned previously, is the more our younger readers know about their natural world, the more apt they will be ready to preserve and protect it.  Woodpecker Wham! (Henry Holt and Company, May 12, 2015) is the most recent collaboration between author April Pulley Sayre and author illustrator Steve Jenkins.  (One of their previous books, Eat Like A Bear, is featured here.  In a staccato style reminiscent of the birds' rhythmic beak beats, chanting words pair with fascinating art as we explore the world of woodpeckers.

Swoop and land.
Hitch and hop.
Shred a tree stump.
CHOP, CHIP, CHOP!

Undoubtedly most of us have seen these birds sweep across our vision but learning about hitching enlarges your appreciation of their skills.  Much like Morse code their tapping is chatting among themselves plus it comes in handy when attracting a mate.  A bona fide feast is found under the bark once they set to work with beak and tongue.

Feathers and wings are cared for well; you never know when color will be needed for display or protection.  As tools their beaks carve homes for themselves and for other woodland dwellers.  They could give lessons to gymnasts in their ability to cling and hide.

As consumers of fruits, they're unknowing seed planters.  Baby woodpeckers keep parents busy until they can search and seize their own food as well fly on their own.  Squirrels have competition in woodpeckers storing food for winter.  Did you know that? And so it ends as it began.


Seventeen four line poems with lines two and four supplying a rhyming tempo welcome readers to woodpeckers and their realms.  April Pulley Sayre uses alliterative and onomatopoeic language to place the outside world on the pages of this book.  Aspects of interest to the intended audience are featured with accuracy.  To expand on the poems, Sayre has included six pages at the close of the book explaining more about the Woodpecker World.  Some of the headings are:

Champion Chiselers
Instant Messages
Seeds by Splat
Cleanup Time
Drilling for Cavities
Home Security

Here is another poem.

Spring sap rises.
Who will drill?
Sapsucker, sapsucker,
sticky bill! 

Spanning both the front and back of the dust jacket the turquoise sky heightens the colors of the highlighted woodpeckers moving about on parts of the same kind of tree.  The fine details throughout the book, the delicate lines, are already evident in these two birds.  Did you know the feathers above their beaks keep wood chips from their nostrils?  I really like the holes in the title text.  Those woodpeckers have been busy.

The different book case is the image used with the first poem.  The opening and closing endpapers are the same shade at the title words.  Northern Flickers flock and flit about on the informal and formal title pages.

Steve Jenkins' cut-and-torn-paper collage artwork covers two pages with the exception of four single pages opposite one another.  These blend well together in design, layout and color.  Whether Jenkins gives readers a fuller view or a close-up of the woodpeckers, they appear real enough to fly off the page.

Two of my favorite illustrations are an extreme zoom of a woodpecker making a hole in a tree and two birds in a cherry tree.  In the first the tree covers one and a half pages.  Chips are flying as the hole forms.  We see this looking at the back of the bird's head.  In the second image the colors are striking; a vivid sky blue, black, white and red on one bird and brown, gray, black, red, golden yellow and rust on the other as they hang on cherry tree branches full of fruit and green leaves.


Woodpecker Wham! written by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is a wonderful portrait of these members of the avian community.  Authenticity is apparent in the words and artwork throughout the seasons of the year.  A page at the end is dedicated to further reading, websites, and acknowledgments.  I highly recommend this for your home and classroom bookshelves.  It's a read aloud treasure brimming with factual gems.

Please visit both April Pulley Sayre's and Steve Jenkins' websites to learn more about them and their other work by following the links attached to their names.  The publisher's website provides views of eight interior pages.  This title was one of several featured by author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and at Kirkus.


Make sure you stop by Kid Lit Frenzy to see what other books were selected by bloggers this week who are participating in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.  Thanks a thousand times over to educator Alyson Beecher for hosting this endeavor.

Contained Within

Seeing not one but seven robins gathered on the lawn last week was like discovering a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  Their voices joining the calls of chickadees, cardinals, crows and geese are uplifting.  It's easy to start imagining where they will set up housekeeping in the shrubs and trees around the house.

Perhaps a nest will be near enough to observe the pale blue eggs carefully laid, warmed and watched, the hatching, and the babies' first flight.  Numerous lives in the animal kingdom begin within an egg.  Egg:  Nature's Perfect Package (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 3, 2015), written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, examines aspects of eggs you may or may not have considered.

Butterflies, frogs, sharks, and humans all begin life as an egg.  So does almost every other animal.

This title focuses on those eggs laid.  It's fascinating to realize a banana slug and a sea urchin lay eggs.  The sizes of eggs vary from those so tiny a microscope is needed to see them to those the size of my two closed fists.  It's also surprising to realize the size of the animal does not determine the size of the egg.  Small animals can have eggs much larger than those of gigantic creatures.

Eggs can be carefully placed where no predators are safe or out in the open.  It's a tad creepy to know where the spider wasp lays a single egg.  There are less than stellar parents who deposit their eggs with other eggs to avoid duties of raising their young.

The number of eggs laid often determines the quality of care received.  The royal albatross lays a single egg.  It will be another two years before they lay another egg.  While I knew the green sea turtle buries their eggs in the sand, I had no idea the number of miles they may swim to find a particular beach.  

Creativity is key for those animals desiring eggs as food.  They may use a rock to crack a shell, throw one between their back legs in order to strike a hard object or make use of a long bill. Knowing this, animals take steps to protect their eggs.  A colored cluster may warn of poison, a dark ink may hide individual eggs or releasing a disgusting liquid may provide discouragement.

Least you think eggs are similar in shape, that is not always the case.  Creatures supply a structure resilient to the environment in which they are laid.  When camouflage or the container for eggs is not sufficient, the eggs are taken with the female or male until birth.  

The black-eyed squid clutches her jelly-like egg sac with sharp hooks on her tentacles.  The sac contains as many as 3,000 eggs, and she will hold on to it for months, going without food until the eggs hatch.  

It's incredible to realize how eggs are kept warm; the maelo buries her eggs, if she has to, in the ashes of a nearby volcano which is active. When babies break free of the eggs, it must be at the right time.  For the brine shrimp it can take up to fifty years.  It can be tricky when you think of how those shells were created to protect and furnish nourishment.  A corn snake has a special tooth to help it break free.  The speed of development, the packaging, size and protection maintained may differ from animal to animal but each egg is a natural marvel, as distinctive as the animal from which it comes. 

When Steve Jenkins and Robin Page combine their talents to write a narrative, we are assured of authenticity through painstaking research.  These two search for the most captivating items of information to present in simple conversational sentences to their audience.  A nice selection of insects, sea and pond creatures, reptiles, birds and land as well as extinct animals are represented to capture the interest of every reader.

Every two pages a new section begins with a short paragraph.  Extra explanatory sentences serve to clarify.  When a specific animal is featured their name is placed in bold type drawing your eyes to their entry.

You can guaranteed readers, even those new to the artwork of Steve Jenkins, will be attracted by the bold background hues on the matching front and back of the dust jacket and book case.  These selected colors serve as the ideal canvas to showcase his slightly cracked egg with a beak poking through the shell.  On the back a long-billed baby bird is emerging.  A bright golden yellow (yolk) covers both the opening and closing endpapers.  The egg seen on the front appears again beneath the title, open, in two pieces and empty.  

Other than the introduction whose text is in the shape of an egg (white on red-orange) and the opposite page in golden yellow with egg types in a row at the bottom, all the remaining pages are pristine white.  Using his masterful technique of

torn-and cut-paper collage

the highlighted eggs and corresponding animals are portrayed in almost photographic detail.  Jenkins' paper choices replicate texture and physical characteristics faithfully.  Layout and design establishes a pleasing flow from page to page.  We may see all or only a portion of an animal.

A couple of my favorite illustrations are of the black-spotted sticky frog and the gray partridge.  The former is shown peeking out of an orange carnivorous pitcher plant.  The tiny baby bird in the second sits among three other eggs in a nest.  The feathers look as soft as down.

From the title, Egg:  Nature's Perfect Package, and including every single page between the cover, authors Steve Jenkins and Robin Page and illustrator Steve Jenkins have given readers of all ages an absorbing look at the subject.  The quality we have come to expect in their words and illustrations is decidedly present in this book.  They continue to inspire us to increase our appreciation of the natural world.  You must be sure to find a place for this on your bookshelves.  It will captivate you every single time you read it.  At the close of the book a comparison of the growth cycle of a chicken and an alligator inside the egg is displayed.  Following this three pages show tiny thumbnails of the animals, their length and habitat.

At Steve Jenkins' website, which you can access by following the link attached to his name, the process used to create this book is outlined in a series of slides.  Three interior double page spreads are available for you to view.  By following this link you are taken to a document prepared by the publisher which includes teacher's guides for five Jenkins' books including this new volume.

Be sure to visit educator Alyson Beecher's blog, Kid Lit Frenzy, to see what other titles were featured by participating bloggers this week in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Facing The Facts

There are some animals I would not mind seeing face to face if my safety is assured.  There are other animals I would never want to see face to face even if my well-being is absolutely guaranteed.  For the most part I am grateful to be able to roam among their habitats keeping myself from infringing on their space; happy for their unexpected nearness unless they are one of those critters I would rather avoid.

Truthfully, considering the changing conditions on our planet, I stand in awe of the adaptability of animals as they strive to survive.  A husband and wife team from whom we have come to expect the very best have a new title.  Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 7, 2014) by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page clarifies what we can expect to see when we look certain animals right in their eyes.

Dear tapir:
Why is your nose crooked?
The tapir has a funny nose.  At least, it looks funny to us.  To the tapir, however, its nose is not a joke.

With this first page the illuminating format used by this author illustrator team is revealed.  Each animal is given a question by the narrator.  They, in turn, provide a short, but descriptive answer.

From South America, home of the tapir, we travel across the ocean to locate an Egyptian vulture whose face is absent of feathers, to discover why a bold red and blue color the countenance of a mandrill, and visit a frilled lizard to discuss the odd arrangement around his neck.  We journey back to where we started to ask the red fan parrot why they may or may not be wearing a hat. While we are there we are astonished to note feathers on a harpy eagle direct sound to their ears.

The nose of a leaf-nosed bat, the mouth of a horned frog, the cheeks of a hamster and the body of a pufferfish are closely examined.  Oddly enough the horns on the bighorn sheep come in handy rather than being a detriment to movement.  Did you even know there is a type of pig called a babirusa living in the Indonesian Islands?

Below ground the star-nosed mole and mole rate us exterior physical characteristics to navigate, find food and dig.  Whiskers and gills not feathers allow two animals to function properly under the sea.  The wily spicebush swallowtail caterpillar sports spots on their tails to trick predators into thinking they are snakes.

Black-eyes, furry ears, and purple tongues help to discourage enemies, provide warmth and give protection from the sun.  The blobfish is a victim of gravity out of the water.  Ending up on the Pacific side of the globe we learn of the importance of a sun bear's long (more than nine inches on some) tongue, the cleverness of the shoebill stork's beak, the advantage of the thorny devil's spikes and the two main assets of the rock hyrax.

The comedic wordplay used by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins takes learning about these twenty-five creatures to the best level.  If your interest is held when you acquire new knowledge because you are laughing and it's fun, why wouldn't you remember the actual facts or the experience?  Page and Jenkins form their sentences with a specific audience in mind; an audience eager to explore the fascinating world of animals.  Read a couple of excerpts shown below.

Dear Egyptian vulture:
Why no feathers
on your face?
Are you sure you
want to know?
Really? Okay, I'll
tell you. ...

Dear leaf-nosed
bat:
Seriously, is that 
your nose?
I know, I know---it
looks strange. ...


This will be the eighth book illustrated by Steve Jenkins honored in a post on my blog.  His torn-paper and cut-paper collage pictures never fail to amaze his readers.  Authentic colors and characteristics are highlighted with vivid, bold backgrounds.  On his matching dust jacket and book case the red used in the text for the title becomes the canvas for the image on the left or back.  A pufferfish is speaking to the reader in reply to a question shown in speech balloons.

Dear
pufferfish:
What's happening
to you?

I'm inflating! It's
just something I do.
I don't have time to
explain right now, but
read the book and I'll
tell you more.

Hues of gold, green, black, red, orange, blue, and salmon supply the backdrop for these animal portraits appearing on single pages throughout the title.  Only two, the horned frog and the blobfish, extend across two pages.  Texture and the smallest of details are portrayed through the choice of paper and intricate handiwork.  Research through reliable resources assists in the accuracy of the images.  They appear as if alive.

One of my favorites of the twenty-five has to be the red squirrel.  The quickness of movement is frozen in this illustration.  You can almost hear the squirrel chattering at you for interrupting what must surely be a day spent in storing food for the upcoming winter.


Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have delivered a stellar work of nonfiction in Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do.  We feel like listeners of a chatty, informative, humorous talk show.  The final two pages give diet and location of each animal depicted by their silhouettes.  A bibliography is included.  I have a feeling you are going to need more than one copy of this title for your shelves.

By following the link attached to Steve Jenkins name you will be taken to his official website.  This link takes you to an explanation of how the book evolved.  The publisher has produced a series of masks to wear taken from five of the pages.

Creature Features Mask Kit

Be sure to head on over to Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see what other bloggers have highlighted today as part of the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Snug As Can Be

The sight of them holds so much promise.  They swoop, glide and soar from place to place looking for materials unique to their practical plan.  It's spring in northern Michigan.  Our state birds have returned building nests in which their distinctive blue eggs will hatch.  This year as mentioned in an earlier post my new planting of ivy was home to a family of robins for many weeks.

 Due to an experience similar to mine, author Jennifer Ward began to investigate about avian architects.  In her most recent title, Mama Built a Little Nest (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division) with illustrations by Steve Jenkins, she offers readers a spirited but informative glimpse at birds and their creative engineering (or not) used in nest building.  Fourteen designs destined to house eggs and their newly hatched inhabitants will increase our appreciation for our feathered friends around the world.

Mama built a little nest
inside a sturdy trunk.
She used her beak to tap-tap-tap
the perfect place to bunk.


As a team woodpecker parents carve a hole in a tree.  A trap used by one insect to snare others is needed to fashion a flexible home for some of our smallest winged wonders.  There are lazy or wily, depending on your point of view, birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests.  Obviously parenting is not their forte.

Papa's feet fold around a single egg.  Scuffed in sky high stone protection is provided.  A creature of cactus creates not one, not two, but three or more nests hoping to attract a female companion.  Those not used serve an ingenious purpose.

Hanging homes, underground abodes, and floating rafts for one serve their babies well.  Walking along a shore line who can say whether its rocks or eggs.  Oh, they are such clever beings.

Body fluids, body waste and mounds of mud shape residences. Nests larger around than some readers are tall would make the best kind of tree houses.  These special resting places are incredible to behold; essential to survival.


On the left hand side of each two pages dedicated to a single bird, Jennifer Ward has written a four line poem; sometimes a single sentence, sometimes two or three.  The second and fourth lines rhyme calling readers' attention to a special characteristic about a specialized spot for eggs and the young.  Expanding on the original thought she provides more details on the right; intriguing items to further our understanding.


Luminous white is the background for the precise collage illustrations of Steve Jenkins.  Piece by piece, layer by layer, he builds two-page masterpieces.  The skillful layout and design seen on the matching dust jacket and book case are found throughout the book.  Identical opening and closing endpapers are green on green feathers carefully patterned from left to right.

Red feathers on the crests of pileated woodpeckers, slender beaks on hummingbirds, texture on rocky crags, spines and bright flowers on cactus, or eyes looking out, above, down or at you alive with inquiry are a part of each visual.  The perspectives selected by Jenkins draw your eyes into each illustration.  It's as if you are looking through the zoom lens of a camera revealing every intricate aspect.

One of my favorite pictures is toward the end where Steve Jenkins alters his background to match the shift in author Jennifer Ward's words.  Without giving away too much, it, as do her words, exudes warmth and a blend of the natural world with humans.  It makes a wonderful connection.


Mama Built a Little Nest written by Jennifer Ward with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is an outstanding introduction to this topic sure to encourage readers to take notice of the world around them.  The combination of rhythmic poetry, fascinating information and stunning illustrations makes this a must-have title in any collection.  There is an author's note and resources for further learning and exploration at the end.  I would pair this with Look Up!: Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LaBlanc Cate and Feathers Not Just For Flying by Melissa Stewart with illustrations by Sarah S. Brannen.

For more information on the additional works of Jennifer Ward and Steve Jenkins please follow the links to their respective websites embedded in their names.  By following this link to the publisher's website you can view pages from the book.  Author and blogger at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Julie Danielson, offers additional images in a post.


Every week my knowledge base gets broader and deeper through participation in the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy.  Enjoy the other titles posted by bloggers linked to her web page.

I See, They See, We All See

Upon waking our eyes send signals to our brains about the amount of light in our surroundings.  As adjustments are made shapes form, colors come into focus.  An entire picture becomes clear and distinct.  During our day our eyes tell us wind speed by the movement of plants and trees, the predicted weather by the shades of blue, gray or white in the sky, of birds and bugs sharing our space, about nighttime visitors by prints left in dirt, when danger approaches with quick shifts across our sight line or to stop, really looking at the beauty of a butterfly landing on a flower, the hues of pinks, purples and orange in a sunset and the silvery patterns in a midnight sky.

Despite the advancements in camera technology and photographic software, no captured moment is quite like seeing it with your own eyes.  More than once I've thought about the miracle of eyes.  For those in the animal kingdom eyes are unique to each one; essential to survival.  Steve Jenkins' title Eye To Eye: How Animals See The World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) brings new understanding to the critical importance of eyes to all.


For more than three billion years, all living things were blind.  

This single statement from within the The first eyes introductory paragraph is truly mind-boggling for several reasons.  A large portion of time is hard to comprehend but to not have sight, evolve and survive during this time is incredible.  Jenkins goes on to say, even though there are many different eyes in the animal kingdom now, they can be basically placed in four designs; eyespot, pinhole eyes, compound eyes and camera eye.  


Twenty-four eyes are examined up-close and personal. Eyes function to find proper food sensing a variety of color, protrude to allow sight in a larger area, or appear on stalks to detect shifts in light.  If the eye has no lens, as does the nautilus, water can move in and out of the pupil.  Sometimes eyes can number over one hundred as in the case of the Atlantic bay scallop, lined up along the edge of the shell.

Can you name the animal with an eye as big as a basketball?  Can you name the animals that can only sense food if it moves?  Can you name the animal that sees more colors than humans do?  High up on the goose bump scale is the animal who can see an image of warm-blooded prey in what humans think of as total darkness.

Then there is the creepy crawly that has four sets of two eyes; each with various functions to zero in on dinner.  In the super cool category are eyes which are in parts, looking up and down at the same time for danger, two eyes which can look in separate directions or eyes which move as the animal ages.  The size of an eye opening can narrow to slits to protect the animal from too much light or be huge compared to the body size to act as orbs at night.

Whether sensing only light, light and detailed shapes, multiple images or a single spectacular whole, eyes in the animal world are in a word, amazing.  Hunter or hunted, sight provides food and protection adapting to habitats.  Prepare for eye-opening wonders, pun intended.


 Author Steve Jenkins has the particular gift of saying enough but not too much.  His introduction hooks readers with the basics and then he moves to astounding details for each animal eye explored.  Precise in their information he fascinates readers with two to four sentences.  He describes to readers what we might see if invisible to these animals; moving in next to them for a private peek.  Here is a single example.

Two plus one
The tuatara, the last surviving
member of an ancient family 
of reptiles, has a third eye on 
the top of its head.  This eye is
sensitive to light, but it cannot
form images.


Twelve circles, twelve eyes, greet readers on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case.  The red is a striking background for these gorgeous eyes.  On the back the circles are repeated with black silhouettes of the entire animal body with the name in black beneath.  Opening and closing endpapers are a solid turquoise, replicating a color from one of the eyes.  The text on the front and back flap is cleverly written from large to small like the letters on a doctor's eye chart.  Centered on the title page is the opposite eye from one of those shown in the body of the book.  Can you discover which animal it is?

On page one Jenkins wows readers with a full page, edge to edge, illustration of the red-crowned Amazon parrot eye. His torn and cut paper pictures follow on every single page portraying realistic texture and detail.  Large amounts of white space act as his canvas for pleasing placement of each larger-than-life eye.  Jenkins has them across the gutter from the bottom or top, coming in from the right or left edge, alternating the design to heighten curiosity with every page turn.  Each animal is featured completely in a smaller image tucked in a corner.

One of my favorite eyes is found in the Atlantic bay scallop.  You can almost feel the intricate hairs along the edge of the shell surrounding the eyes.  The tiny blue eyes look like delicate pearls.


You simply can't read a Steve Jenkins book without taking away new information.  This title, Eye To Eye:  How Animals See The World, is no exception.  I highly recommend you add it to your library or classroom collections.  I know your children and students will be reaching out their hands to touch the pages enticed by the illustrations, intrigued by the words.  At the back of the book a page is devoted to The evolution of the eye, thumbnail pictures of the animals with size, habitat and diet information including a bibliography and a glossary.

More illustrations from this title can be seen by following the link to Steve Jenkins' website embedded in his name.  Follow this link to the publisher's website for additional visuals.  There is even more artwork from this post by Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

I am happy to participate in Alyson Beecher's 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge every Wednesday hosted on her blog, Kid Lit Frenzy.  Make sure you read about the other books bloggers have read by following their links.

A Different Point Of View

There are authors' and illustrators' books, no matter the topic, when read you know you will learn something new.  There may be one fact on a subject, a subject in which you thought you were well versed, which will make you gasp in surprise.  From that moment on, you will become the proverbial sponge, going backward and forward, reading the text and pictures.


Last year I highlighted several books illustrated and written by Steve Jenkins, one in collaboration with his wife Robin Page.  My First Day by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, January 2013) chronicles twenty-two newborn animals.  The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest---and Most Surprising---Animals on Earth (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, October 2013) by Steve Jenkins is a masterful work on all things animals.  Little did I know that in-between those two another stunning publication, Animals Upside Down (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, August 2013) was released.

What do spiders, bats, and birds of paradise have in common?  Along with many other creatures, they turn upside down.  A few of them, in fact, spend most of their lives this way.

Twenty-six known or unknown creatures, depending on where you live, are the object of this interactive introduction.  Readers pull tabs moving animals and sliding windows, open flaps, turn pages to reveal pop-ups and spin circles; each one an intriguing  revelation.  On land or water, readers travel the globe to explore and wonder at the amazing adaptability of each living thing.

While I am more than familiar with the abilities of a striped skunk, I was unaware of the darkling beetle's capabilities to duplicate a similar response in defense.  A fire-bellied toad is aptly named changing colors to ward off predators; the poisonous skin is a pretty good deterrent too.  Playing dead works well for a hog-nosed snake, a pale green weevil and opossum.  One even takes it to the extreme, passing out cold in fright.

Being able to move in the opposite direction, while looking at different angles than most, comes in handy for the nuthatch.  Lots of tail action on the part of a harvest mouse, an armored pangolin, a monkey skink and a woolly monkey aid in movement and feasting on food.  You have to appreciate the cleverness of the net-catching spider lowering the woven trap on its next meal while hanging above it.  As many times as I've watched hummingbirds, I've yet to see one upside down to get nectar.

When you've grown up boating on the water for pleasure or fishing, it's not uncommon to see mallards or other ducks, tipping their bodies to put their heads in the water for food.  But what the sparrowhawk does in flight to capture an unsuspecting bird is not something I have ever seen.  There's more than eye-catching pink to the traits of a flamingo.  Their beaks are nature's own strainers.

Turning around to leave a specially built home, hanging from a branch like a dead leaf, and being the only bird to sleep upside down assist each of these three in staying alive.  All of these creatures either originally or evolved to exist "outside the box".  Their point of view makes all the difference.


For the most part two sentences, sometimes three or four, define the unique characteristics of these animals.  They are clearly understandable, written with a choice of words to convey place and purpose, matching beautifully with the illustrations.  The name of the animal is displayed in bold text to focus the reader's attention.  At the back of the book two pages are devoted to thumbnail pictures of the animals with short paragraphs providing further information usually including size and geographical location.  (Who knew skunk spray could go not one, not two but twelve feet?)

Here is a sample of text.

A hungry trumpetfish lurks, head down.  Disguised as a piece of soft coral, this stealthy fish waits for its prey to come close.  


The contrasting blue, brown, gold and red on the book's cover with the bat looking straight ahead on the front and the spider about to catch an unsuspecting fly on the back, is a direct invitation to the reader.  The endpapers are a part of the book, every bit of space is an element.  A warm bright white supplies the background for Steve Jenkins' lively cut and torn paper collage illustrations which pop off the page even without the paper engineering.

Alternating the action taken by readers, pulling a tab to bring a change into a pre-cut gap, opening a flap, pulling a tab to slide sections into creating a new image, pulling a tab to make an animal's body move, opening pages to reveal a pop-up or spinning a circle to make an creature shift position, contributes to the constant interest, the solving of a marvelous mystery.  Purposeful placement of the animals on the pages serves to add to the overall excellent design.  Text is located next to or around each creature.

One of my favorite illustrations is of the weaverbird's nest formed of woven grass and palm fronds hanging down from the top of the page.  The bird, in bright shades of golden yellow, peeks from the narrow bottom.  When the tab is pulled most of his body comes out, upside down.


Reading this book is like going on a treasure hunt; each page turn adding to the bounty we call knowledge.  No matter your age Animals Upside Down (A Pull, Pop, Lift & Learn Book!) written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is a fascinating look at these twenty-six individual living beings.  Its colorful pictures, enlightening text and sturdy construction on heavy paper make for a lasting book to be enjoyed repeatedly.

The link embedded above in the title is to Steve Jenkins' website.  It gives you a look at four of the pages, dissolving into the changes.  Enjoy the trailer.  


I am excited to be participating in Alyson Beecher's 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted on her blog, Kid Lit Frenzy, each Wednesday.  I love filling in my nonfiction book gap with many great titles, new and old.

Know, Understand And Be Amazed

For the second time in the past five years, I've nearly been nose to nose with a white-tailed deer.  The first time Xena and I were walking through the woods of a nearby conservancy, climbing a hill.  As we came around a bend at the top, there stood a buck with a large set of antlers enjoying a meal of apples beneath a tree.   We all stood frozen for several heartbeats.

More recently as the final moments of daylight were leaving, I was hurrying to sweep the last autumn leaves off my deck.  A doe was walking into my back yard having left the safety of a nearby vacant lot.  We caught each other completely unaware.

These close encounters with the animal kingdom make us pause, wonder again at the space we share and marvel at the characteristics, the adaptability, of each specie.  It stands to reason, given all his previous books on specific aspects of animals, the newest title written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest---and Most Surprising---Animals on Earth (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children), would cover the depth and breadth of all creatures.  With every page turn, the word masterpiece will continue to enter your thoughts.

In the introduction, Jenkins states:

When I was six years old, I was given a copy of Life magazine.  On the cover was a remarkable illustration of a bird and a tortoise.  ...
...This book brings together more than 300 of these animals---the exotic and the everyday---and describes some of the amazing things they can do.

A table of contents follows listing the eight categories found in this title: Animals, Family, Animal Senses, Predators, Defenses, Animal Extremes, The Story of Life and More Information.  Each section is further broken into finer points numbering between six and eleven concluding with Facts pages at the end of each.  Decades of research, unbelievable information, is found on each and every page.

In the first section we are given a five part, easy to understand, definition of an animal.  Species, their numbers, their importance in individual biomes, and their physical characteristics which place them in groups are discussed.  The proportion of insects with respect to other animals is mind-boggling.  Raise your hand if you knew there are 3,000 species of mosquito.

All manner of perpetuating a given animal are presented.  Some animals need a mate, others do not.  Attracting, fighting for and dancing with a mate are revealed.  While the comparing of egg sizes is interesting, the how and where of egg laying is fascinating and a little cringe worthy.  Birth, care of young and brothers and sisters will have readers glad of their own circumstances.  No wonder there are so many flies, it only takes one day for an egg to hatch.  It might be nice if they could trade places with elephants for awhile.

Seeing with eyes that can move in separate directions at the same time, hearing with ears on their feet, feeling vibrations in the water with tiny hairs on their skin, being able to taste with their entire body or sensing heat, electricity or the earth's magnetic field are some of the means of survival for animals.  Size and placement of their sensory organs are crucial and a direct reflection of their environment.  We can't see them with our eyes but the giant clam has more pinhole-size eyes covering its body than can be counted.

The cheetah may be the fastest sprinter on the planet but I'm glad the tiger beetle is not any larger.  Yikes!  Wily animals wait and leap, seek cover by camouflage or attract with a tricky bait to get their next meal.  Poison and specially designed body parts can be deadly for prey.  Yuck...storing food on your skin, shedding it and eating it, may be good for the crucifix toad but not for this person.

Flight, hide, mimic, poison, armor, body fluids, surprise, fight and teamwork provide defense in the face of an enemy.  Frogs that fly, a beetle pretending to be bird poo, a primate with toxic elbows, a gull chick with sticky vomit or a bird with a life-threatening kick are among many to be avoided.  Depending on an animal's placement on the food pyramid they may have many or no predators except for humans.

When the largest animals ever to have lived are compared to the size of a human, it makes you really stop to think...and wish you could see a blue whale just once in the wild.  The biggest then and now, comparing cat to cat, turtle to turtle, snake to snake, the actual size of some animals, the smallest, the loudest, the longest living, those residing in extreme climates and those most dangerous to humans are all described. You can't help but contemplate the danger to people of one of the smallest animals.

The chapter, The Story of Life, is a brief but informative look at the beginning following it to the present day.  A time line, the theory of evolution, survival of the fittest, mutation and physical characteristics are reviewed.  As hard as this concept is to fathom, Jenkins makes it clear.

Fourteen pages of animal thumbnail pictures are supplied with the page number of their appearance in the book, their size, habitat, diet and a single fact.  Pertinent words are defined in a glossary.  I am especially pleased with the inclusion of twelve pages Making Books. Steve Jenkins provides readers with his process.  The final pages are of a bibliography of sources and a page of those books Jenkins and others have previously made, parts of which are found in this title.


It's as if Steve Jenkins has taken his considerable years of work, read through each and every volume, poured over all his research and picked the best to share with his readers.  Each chapter opens with a conversational paragraph on the topic as does each subsequent portion.  The pictures selected to enhance a subject are explained in informative but not overwhelming detail.  There is not a single sentence that does not serve to engage readers.

Jenkins' torn-paper and cut-paper collage illustrations are incredible.  Texture and color so closely imitate real life readers will be enticed to look at them again and again.  The array of animal life on the matching jacket and cover is repeated in a small patterned gray on gray silhouette display on the opening and closing endpapers,

Like a naturalist's journal everywhere you look are animals of all shapes, sizes and habitats from Earth, each carefully labeled.  To accentuate his creations Jenkins makes liberal use of white space.  Each chapter beginning (starting with Family) prominently depicts the included sections in small circles at the top or bottom. The colorful, graphs and charts found throughout are a fact-finders delight.  Readers will be wowed by the two page spreads carefully placed in each section.


I can't recommend highly enough The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest---and Most Surprising---Animals on Earth written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins.  This is one of those titles that can be enjoyed by the most avid naturalist or the casual observer; there is something within these pages for everyone.  I've been completely engrossed in the reading of it for more than two days.  I can imagine conversations around the dinner table or on trips with individuals randomly calling out information gleaned from this title.  This book is a treasure.

Please follow the link embedded in Steve Jenkins' name to access his official website.  Here is a recent interview with Steve Jenkins by Roger Sutton at The Horn Book. Enjoy the book trailer below.  Here are links to my other reviews of books illustrated or written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, The Beetle Book, My First Day and Eat Like a Bear.