A quirky book with wonderful images and a title that I wished I had created! It is true that some animals may seem to us ridiculous, but adaptations and environment have made them what they are. How about the chameleon, who maybe just ‘can’t decide what to wear’! The illustrations have a true sense of ‘amazing and incredible’ and the text around them has two versions; one which is a comprehensive factual base and another which is expressive and intriguing.
‘Chameleons have prehensile tails (which means they can wrap around branches, giving them excellent balance in their tree top homes.’
To…‘Chameleons are big fans of Boy George’ (a reference to the colourful hair do!)
The second title in the series from the hilarious Philip Bunting is filled with facts about some of the weirdest creatures in the natural world.
The antagonist voice (speaking though cheeky annotations) points out the apparent ridiculousness of each creature’s features, while the narrator’s voice describe the evolutionary reasons or advantages for each animal’s extraordinary characteristics.
With hilarious text throughout and bright, contemporary illustrations, this guide to ridiculous animals contains funny labelled diagrams and will help teach kids about evolution by studying some of its most wild products!
Philip Bunting, the author and illustrator has some great titles to his name. He encourages a playful interaction between the child and reader( either themselves or someone else), and aims to inspire young children into reading and finding out as a source of fun and learning.
Since his first book was published in 2017 he is published in over 30 countries and has received multiple honours from Children’s Book Council of Australia( which is an organisation we at Books Go Walkabout are pleased to promote as we work with a number of Australian authors).
Happy Yak are a part of the Quarto Publishing Group for books for young children which are contemporary, engaging and entertaining as a way of supporting children’s learning and development.
I love this book, the style, content and superb quality of the actual book itself. It is going home with me for a while and I can find out more about ‘ridiculous animals’ and then Books Go Walkabout will donate to a local school.
Sue Martin
