Review: Can an Aardvark Bark?

Title: Can an Aardvark Bark?
Author: Melissa Stewart
Illustrator: Steve Jenkins
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
Review copy: Final copy from publisher
Availability: On shelves now


Summary: From award-winning author Melissa Stewart and Caldecott honoree Steve Jenkins comes a noisy nonfiction exploration of the many sounds animals make.

Can an aardvark bark? No, but it can grunt. Lots of other animals grunt too... 

Barks, grunts, squeals--animals make all kinds of sounds to communicate and express themselves. With a growling salamander and a whining porcupine, bellowing giraffes and laughing gorillas, this boisterous book is chock-full of fun and interesting facts and is sure to be a favorite of even the youngest animal enthusiasts.

Review: 
Children are sure to squeel, grunt, growl and make all manner of wild sounds when reading this entertaining bit of nonfiction. The book is in a question and answer format and is accompanied by Steve Jenkins' wonderful illustrations. Throughout the book, readers find out about animals that do and do not make various sounds. There are also other facts about the animals included in captions. These captions add a lot to the text and will be gobbled up by animal fans.

The illustrations fascinate me as a lover of paper art and collage. The porcupine is fabulous with its amazing quills. The texture of the boar is also fabulous. I think this, like many of the books Steve Jenkins has illustrated, would be a natural jumping off point for creating animal art.

This is definitely a book I am eager to share with students. Animals are intriguing to most children and this look at ways to communicate easily ties into our own ways to communicate.

Recommendation: If you are looking for engaging nonfiction picture books, Can an Aardvark Bark? is one you will want to purchase. It's sure to be a hit with children and adults. 

Extras:
Interview on Mr. Schu's Watch. Connect. Read.

Beetles!

You may not be able to see them, but just above the grass, there are many, many lovely beetles hovering. When I walked my dog to the park today, I had no idea we would see hundreds of them.

They completely reminded me of The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins that I read just last week. I enjoyed all of the beetle trivia he provided. I wonder though, why I love to have a butterfly land on my arm and give me true butterfly kisses, but when a beetle lands on me I have a very negative reaction. What is it about them that creeps me out? I didn't mind the one that landed on my capris, but when one zoomed into my face, I shrieked. When one landed on my arm, that appendage started to flail around wildly almost before I even processed the fact that a beetle was there. Jenkins book was awesome and it definitely was why I stopped to check these guys out in spite of the risk of getting too close to them. Once I got over my heebie-jeebies, it was pretty fascinating to watch them so thank you Steve!

Steve Jenkins' book grabbed my interest from the start. The endpapers of the book are gorgeous with splotches of jewel green, red, and many other colors swirling about. The illustrations are just fantastic all of the way through like his previous books. His collage or cut paper style of creating images gives depth and texture to the illustrations. They are just eye-popping. He included scale information along the way so that the reader can keep everything in perspective even if it is enlarged to see the details. 

There are tons of facts packed into the 32 pages. He includes just the type of information that my students will love to learn like, "the hide beetle eats the dried skin and flesh of dead animals. Natural history museums use these beetles to clean bones for display" from p. 18. There is even a great section about beetle chemical warfare. 

I can't wait to share this one with my students in the fall!