Review by New York Times Review
IN the course of any literary or journalistic career, all of us at one time or another write something that's utter poop. But few dare to make that word the title of a book, as this writer-illustrator team did in their last, much-praised outing together, "Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable." This time around, they take on animals that have evolved to thrive in the most extreme conditions on Earth, from the "frog-sicles" that get through the winter "frozen solid and brittle as glass" to the high-jumping click beetles that manage to survive a 2,000 G-force without passing out (the way wimpy humans do at five G's). The authors bring just the right note of whimsy and scientific accuracy to their task. Nicola Davies, a sometime zoologist, is a writer, producer and presenter of radio and television programs in Britain. On her British publisher's Web site, she reveals that she keeps sheep and trims them with kitchen shears. Also that "I'm expert at wringing chickens' necks," and, oh dear, that "I used to study whales in Newfoundland dressed in nothing but wellies (only on hot days)." Well, talk about hands-on! And what is going on with the weather in Newfoundland? But this is a highly promising note for the sort of mischievous, nitty-gritty, unsentimental approach to nature that immature readers of all ages will love. The illustrator, Neal Layton, gets the right number of legs and eyes on his spiders, and does so with a suitable joie de doofiness. The title page shows extremophile bacteria "being BOILED alive in super hot mud," saying "Yay!" and "Fab!" Though I have often reported on the same territory of odd and extreme animals, this book still managed to surprise me. I didn't know, for instance, that polar bears have black skin, the better to retain heat. Nor was I aware of the Sahara Desert ants that endure a body temperature of up to 128 degrees. (When I compared Davies's account with the original scientific report on these ants, the only thing I thought she missed was the nice detail that they get to dine on the carcasses of other creatures that can't stand the heat.) Davies is clear and creative about explaining concepts like the cell ("the tiny, delicate building blocks from which all bodies are made") and the "countercurrent mechanism" for keeping emperor penguins from losing body heat "through the tootsies." But one term she never defines is "evolution," which strikes me as an unfortunate omission. Evolution is of course how all these creatures adapted to living in such extreme circumstances in the first place. That's half the fun of the story: desert lizards that eat ants have to hide in the shade at, say, 126 degrees. So Saharan ants have gradually changed to take advantage of that toasty little free time between 126-128 degrees. Davies knows this process of natural selection as well as anyone. "Once upon a time," she writes, "all living things were tiny, each made of just one cell, like bacteria. Then some of these single-celled beings started living together in colonies." So far so good, especially when she adds that we humans have thousands of different cells in our bodies. But then she writes, "Living bodies are designed to ... ." Yikes! Call me paranoid, but when the word "design" comes up these days in biology, it's often a lead-in to "intelligent design," the idea that a divine creator, rather than natural selection, cooked up all these quirky behaviors. I suspect the word choice was just unlucky, not an attempt to give equal time. But in any case, "Extreme Animals" leaves parents to explain the concept of evolution on their own. Or alternatively, Mom or Dad can describe how God sat at the workbench to design, say, the tardigrade, so it could "survive being frozen, boiled, squashed and quite a few other trials besides." (And what fun it will be answering those darned questions the kids will ask about a divine psyche with a penchant for putting creatures in such circumstances.) I prefer to imagine God busy with weightier matters, but now and then sitting back, feet up, to be amused and delighted by the strange ways the natural world has worked things out by itself. That's also how merely mortal readers will feel with this pleasant little volume in hand. Richard Conniff has written about extreme animals for National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, as well as in his book "The Natural History of the Rich."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist 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 \lquote 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 Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The team behind Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable returns with another informative oblong volume, Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies, illus. by Neal Layton. The duo catalogues the "animals (and plants) that relish the sort of conditions that would kill a human quicker than you could say `coffin' "-from the polar bears at the North Pole to the cold-cuddling Emperor penguins on the South Pole, to camels who welcome a chill after a hot day in the desert. Layton's mix of full-bleed, full-page illustrations, photo-collage spot art and cartoon panels nicely balance the humorous, fact-filled text. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-"We humans are such a bunch of wimps!-we can't live without food, or water, and just a few minutes without air is enough to finish us off. Luckily, not all life is so fragile." So begins Davies's breezy, engaging, and thoroughly informative natural history of some of the most tenacious survivors on the planet. There is life everywhere on Earth, even in the bubbling volcano, the driest desert, the polar wastelands, and much of that life thrives in conditions that humans could not endure for five minutes or less. This funny and appealing little book describes who these amazing life-forms are and how they manage to survive. Simple and inviting cartoon drawings enliven the text and convey the types of extremes in an easy-to-understand manner. This book is filled with report information, but also is interesting enough to read for fun. It will pique children's curiosity and have them clamoring to learn more about these unique creatures.-Cynde Suite, Bartow County Library System, Adairsville, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) This entertaining book uses both wonder and humor to explore the adaptations of some remarkable organisms that function perfectly normally under temperatures and pressures that would wipe out humans in seconds. What makes this book a standout is that it manages to integrate very funny humor, gross guts-and-gore, and riveting scientific information. Fans of the intense will relish the descriptions of the effects of extreme environmental conditions -- ""when bodies freeze, ice bursts blood vessels and wrecks organs...by cracking open their cells"" -- but Davies goes well beyond this level to find interesting facts that bring scientific curiosities to the forefront. Yes, we all know that polar bears can survive in very cold weather, but did you know that they are so heat-efficient they don't show up on infrared scans? The explanations help kids to think about how adaptations to any conditions are critical for survival, putting what humans consider ""normal"" and ""extreme"" into perspective. Layton's amusing cartoon illustrations are an excellent complement to the text and use anthropomorphism for humor: apparently micro-organisms are quite corny and enjoy slang and bathroom jokes -- which means they should get along famously with the intended elementary school-aged audience. A glossary and index are appended. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fresh from their dive into Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable (2004), Davies and Layton introduce a menagerie of survivors who have adapted to the worst conditions that nature can dish out. With plenty of Layton's daffy, digitally colored cartoons to add both detail and flights of fancy ("Live Naked" proclaims a polar bear's signboard), Davies conveys readers from the Arctic's far-below-zero temperatures to the 200-plus degree heat near a volcano's rim, from sunless "black smokers" on the sea bottom to harsh deserts. She not only identifies denizens of each clime, but also explains how, for instance, Emperor penguins keep their feet warm, wood frogs can survive being frozen and thawed and camels prevent their sensitive brains from overheating. In the end, the author presents persuasive reasons for awarding the "Truly Toughest Extreme Animal" trophy not to humans ("We humans are such a bunch of wimps!"), but to the lowly water bear. Fine fare for younger naturalists. (index, glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
