Bats, mice, moles, dogs, caterpillars, and dolphins use super high sounds—ultrasound—to find their young, avoid their enemies, and communicate over long distances. Other animals, like elephants, arctic terns, alligators, and prairie dogs use super-low sounds—infrasounds—to communicate. Arnold, author of many outstanding science titles (Giant Shark, 2000, etc.), introduces a dozen animals with super hearing in this appealing offering. It serves as a clear and accessible introduction to animal communications, with enough unusual facts to intrigue the more experienced reader as well. For example, Arnold explains arctic terns can hear very low sounds, like distant thunder. “They may be able to use this information to avoid storms.” And “Crickets, katydids, and cicadas make sounds by rapidly rubbing their front wings together. Other insects vibrate special membranes or squirt fluids from their bodies to make ultrasounds.” The brief text is complemented by dozens of full-color illustrations that extend it, often with boxes to highlight specific details. The author concludes with some Web sites for more information on animal communication and a brief glossary. A welcome addition to the science section. (Nonfiction. 5-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-57091-404-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2001
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The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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