CHAMPION CHOMPERS, SUPER STINKERS AND OTHER POEMS BY EXTRAORDINARY ANIMALS

In personified mask poems, animals boast about their claims to distinctions like biggest, strongest, and longest-tongued.

Together comprising a guessing game for readers, each short, rhyming verse is accompanied by a teaser illustrating part of the animal’s body. A page turn reveals each animal in its habitat along with its distinguishing “best” and a concise paragraph packed with well-chosen facts. After introducing three of the fastest animals—the cheetah, pronghorn, and peregrine falcon—Ashman spotlights the three-toed sloth in a witty poem called “Slowpoke.” “Although I know / I’m very slow / (the pokiest around), / I take first prize, / Endurance-wise, / For time spent upside down.” This tree-dwelling “SLOWEST Mammal” moves so little that greenish algae grow on its fur, helping to camouflage it from predators. Birds, fish, land and marine mammals, and reptiles are covered, and among renowned greats like the giraffe (“TALLEST animal”) and blue whale (“BIGGEST Animal Ever”), Ashman includes several fascinating, lesser-known species. Casting the white-spotted puffer fish as “BEST Undersea Artist,” she highlights the males’ extraordinary sand-sculpting. Their “amazing circular designs of hills and valleys more than 20 times their body size” are designed to attract a female, who lays her eggs at the center. Varma’s appealing, digitally composed pictures simplify the animals’ salient features within a naturalistic palette of green, blue, and ocher. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A brimming compendium that inventively mixes facts, poetry, and humor.