Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Review: Ick! by Melissa Stewart

Title:
Ick! Delightfully Disgusting Animal Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses
Publisher: National Geographic
Pages: 112
Availability: On shelves now
Review copy: Final copy via publisher

Summary: From award-winning author Melissa Stewart comes the journey through the animal world you'll ever take. From ants to zebras, get ready to discover some seriously strange animal behaviors. Slurp up soupy insides with houseflies, spit sticky saliva to build nests with birds, and fend off predators with poop-flinging caterpillars and farting snakes. And that's just the tip of the dung pile! These yucky habits may seem surprising to us, but they're totally normal for these animals. In fact, their survival depends on them.

Snappy text, incredible photography, and more cool features add to the learning fun. Ready to chew some fingernails with cockroaches? Dive into the digusting world of animals!

Review: The title is a serious warning. This is one of the most nausea inducing book I may have ever encountered. For readers who love to be grossed out, this is the ultimate. While reading this, my gag reflex was engaged multiple times. There are many readers at my elementary school who are going to adore this book. The best part of course is sharing the information with your nearest and dearest and watching their reaction. My youngest child refused to allow me to speak anymore after I shared just a few pieces of information from this text.

Melissa Stewart has managed to find some of the most bizarre pieces of disgusting information about a wide variety of critters. As you would expect with any National Geographic book, the illustrations are amazing close ups. The information is also broken up in to bits. There is rarely more than two paragraphs in a row so it likely won't look intimidating to readers who avoid lengthy texts.

Recommendation: This is a fabulous book for those interested in animals and all their strangeness. Readers of the Guinness record books and Strange But True series will likely adore this one. Highly recommended. 

No comments:

Post a Comment