Customer Reviews

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth

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Lots of people have written about penguins, polar bears, and bacteria--but not this way! Nicola Davies has written stories about the roughest, toughest, baddest animals there are, so funny I was laughing out loud and so good I couldn't put it down.

She brings life to the dullest subjects. Is a sponge an interesting creature? It never was to me, but her account is. She says, "To be honest, even live sponges don't do much. They just sort of sit there and grow. But put one in a blender and you'll see that they do something no other animal can: pour your sponge smoothie back into its seawater home, and it will put itself back together..."

Explanations that are accurate but make sense to a non-scientist (animals with "antifreeze" in their bodies, for example) and deceptively simple illustrations by Neal Layton make this one of my new favorite books.

I love this book. It is fun to browse through (cartoon-like illustrations make it fun). But it is definitely a book chock full of information. How do seals dive so deep and not get the bends? How do frogs survive winter after being frozen like popsicles? Can an organism really survive temperatures exceeding 230 degrees or as low as absolute zero, -459 F? Not only does this little book provide these answers and explanations, it will leave the reader hungry for more mind-blowing revelations about life on this planet, and perhaps on the next. Warning: It will be difficult not to read snippets to whomever is in the room with you.

"Extreme Animals" keeps the reader under its spell from first page to last. Short segments revealing impossible survival facts are accompanied by whimsical, fun illustrations that coincide with and reinforce the text. The author jumps from topic to topic with abandon, dropping one jaw-dropping factual bombshell after another. Each turn of the page introduces a new topic, a new creature, and multiple surprises, revelations, and biological marvels that rival anything Ripley has to offer.




I like the playful, impish illustrations of Neal Layton whose pictures seem to have been drawn by a clever elementary school age artist. Layton's drawings reinforce and illustrate the text well exhibiting some slapstick and subtle humor along the way. One of my favorites is the full page featuring the Kosiest Koat Kontest with a smiling musk ox, seal otter, and bikini'd bowhead whale on the stage under the spotlights. Another full page graphic opposite text explaining how an emperor penguin doesn't lose heat from its feet illustrates the facts perfectly with a diagram of the inner workings of the penguin and an illustrated explanation of the Penguin's amazing coat of feathers. And the pic of the lab tech with a nose on the side of his face is a hoot.

Extreme Animals is a book that belongs in the classroom. It's a book that can teach vocabulary and science facts. It's a book that might kindle a love of reading, that might inspire and motivate a quest for additional knowledge. For example, the author writes of the invasive crown-of-thorns starfish that were cut into pieces, each piece growing back into a new starfish. I'm sure some readers would want to know more about these crown-of thorns starfish .

Even though I studied English in college, I'm kind of a science nerd. Science can be an awful lot of fun and I love learning new facts about the creatures that live on Earth. EXTREME ANIMALS is one of the better short animal fact books, oriented towards children, that I've read in several years. The book examines a wide variety of creatures on the planet that are capable of living and surviving under the harshest conditions. From the freezing cold temperatures of the Artic to the blasting inferno inside a volcano to the massive pressure living near the bottom of the ocean to the ferocious aridity of a desert to the zero atmosphere of space, there are animals and organisms from our planet that can survive all of those environments and more. The book is written in a very easy-to-understand manner, e.g. comparing they way frogs use sugar to keep from freezing to antifreeze, and is sure to be a joy for young enquiring minds. The text is accompanied with playful, almost animated illustrations from Neal Layton that make the book even easier to enjoy, as well as displaying some of the information visually. A highly recommended book for those interested in science and animals (especially children), as well as something to supplement a science lesson in a preschool class.

Anyway, I love this book. I mean it. If you have a kid in like 3-5 grade who loves animals, buy this one. It's filled with truly amazing facts about all kinds of critters, including polar bears, wood frogs, thermophiles and sperm whales. Compared to the other animals, humans are just wimps. And who would have known that the the title for toughest creature would go to one I've never hear of before. Of course, you'll have to read the book to find out what it is. I'll give you a clue: it starts with a "T" and is really small.

The book is conversational in tone, with the facts thrown in. It makes it enjoyable to read, not at all dry. The illustrations are cartoony and funny. It's learning and fun rolled into one.