Weird,
Wild, Amazing! by
Tim Flannery, illustrated by Sam Caldwell (Hardie Grant Egmont) HB RRP ISBN
9781760501587
Reviewed by
Dianne Bates
A
mammologist, author Tim Flannery was curator of mammals at the Australian
Museum in Sydney for 20 years. During this time, he visited most of the islands
between eastern Indonesia and Fiji, discovering new species of marsupials, rats
and bats. In an interesting introduction to this substantial and very
interesting book, Flannery tells how his discovery, at the age of eight, of the
fossilised remains of an extinct sea urchin, inspired his love of dinosaurs and
the years that followed leading to his illustrious career.
This
handsome non-fiction book begins with colourful spotlights on land, sea and air
creatures and then a list of contents under headings, ‘Concepts’, ‘Water,’
‘Sky’, ‘Forest’ and ‘Desert’ plus an index and a glossary. In the section
titled ‘Water’, there’s a list of water animals including jellyfish, piranhas,
frogs and toads, pufferfish and many more. Pages are devoted to animals: under
‘Whales’ for instance, there are fascinating sub-headings such as ‘Huge Heads V
Big Brains’, ‘Singing Stars’ and ‘Seasoned Travellers’. In ‘Diving Champs’, the
reader learns that sperm whales can dive more than a kilometre deep in the
ocean to look for giant squid, holding their breath for up to an hour and a
half at a time. It seems their heads are packed with ‘spermaceti’ which is
thought to help these whales adjust their ability to float or sink in the
water.
Throughout
the book which has many break-out boxes on each page, there are amazing facts
and figures. Consider some of the interesting sub-headings” ‘Poop and Pee’,
‘The Biggest Creature Ever’, ‘Terrible Table Manners’ and ‘Spitting’. Flannery
certainly knows what will amuse and interest young readers and provides facts
and figures from his many scientific studies. There’s a great few pages about
naked mole rats which live in colonies of about 75, each with its own job to
perform. Reading about them, you realise a similarity with bees insofar as
there is a queen whose job is to eat all the best food and have lots of babies,
their dads, security guards and workers which dig tunnels for everyone, gather
food and look after the queen’s babies.
Information
is broken down into small columns which invite the reader to either read from
cover to cover or to dip in wherever and whenever. And there are plenty of colourful
critters on each page with boxes of all colours to draw the eye in.
A terrific
read for children aged 10 years and up. Highly recommended.
