Extreme Animals - Hardcover

Nicola Davies is a zoologist and writer who has also produced and presented several radio and TV programmes. Her books for children include the novel Home and many acclaimed non-fiction titles such as Poo and Surprising Sharks. She lives in Devon. Neal Layton has illustrated more than forty books including Poo by Nicola Davies and Rover by Michael Rosen. Neal has also illustrated his own stories, which include Oscar and Arabella and Bartholomew and the Bug, both winners of the Smarties Book Prize Bronze Award. He lives in Hampshire.

*Starred Review* "We humans are such a bunch of wimps . . . all over the planet there are animals that relish the sort of conditions that would kill a human quicker than you could say 'coffin'." Davies' chatty, funny text and Layton's colorful cartoons illustrations, as playful and immediate as they were in Davies' Poop (2004), will pull kids into the fascinating book about survival. Each double-page spread makes a wealth of information accessible to kids--facts about particular mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, bacteria, and more, which thrive in habitats ranging from polar wastelands to deserts and volcanoes. Cold-blooded frogs turn themselves into "frog popsicles" by making "ice grow between all the important bits of their bodies"; sperm whales store oxygen in their blood and muscles; microorganisms called thermophiles live near volcanoes or at the bottom of the sea and eat chemicals such as sulfur and iron; and fleas can resist gravity that would break human bones. Comparisons with humans add to the fun, whether the subject is reptiles' special pee or a camel's yo-yo temperature. Exciting biology for the elementary-school classroom. Hazel Rochman
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