Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Readers can guess the identities of 10 animals by studying their skeletons, each of which has a superlative quality (the "biggest" belongs to the blue whale, and a reticulated python has the "most"). The animals' skeletons appear in bright white set against glossy black backgrounds, accompanied by clues: "Who has a skeleton but no bones? Answer: Me," hints a hammerhead shark. Intervening spreads show the living animals in their habitats, and flocking offers a tactile way for children to better understand how the creatures' skeletons relate to their bodies. A stylish introduction to how specialized and different bones can be. Ages 4-9. Author's agent: Kevin O'Conner, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
This handsome volume presents "record-breaking" facts about the framework that gives vertebrates their shape. On each spread, readers view a skeleton and ponder clues (given by the animal in the first person) to guess which animal has the largest, smallest, longest, heaviest, etc. bones; turn the page for the detailed answer accompanied by a graphically sharp full-body illustration with tactile raised embellishments. Reading list, websites. Glos. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The inside stories on 10 creatures who can lay claim to bone-y extremes. Framed as a "Who am I?" guessing game, the illustrations alternate simplified white skeletons on solid black backgrounds on rectos with, on those pages' versos, painted views of the fleshed-out creatures featuring invisible but raised bones that can be felt. In accompanying clues and narratives in the voices of the creatures, Balkan makes much use of colorful comparisons and atypical but revealing units of measure: "Not counting my tail," the Etruscan shrew (smallest bones) notes, "my SKELETON is the size of a paperclip and weighs less than a single raisin!" Likewise, thanks to having the largest mandible (i.e., bone of any sort), a blue whale boasts "I could fit one hundred of your friends on my tongue." ("But don't worry. I don't eat humans.") The author makes no bones about playing fast and loose with the premise, admitting that some "records" are speculativewhich bird has the lightest bones? "Let's not quibble," responds the peregrine falconand slipping in a moot claim that the hammerhead shark has the "fewest bones" because its skeleton isn't bone at all but cartilage. Still, as she points out at beginning and end, all of the bones here have human equivalents, and that connection should give both casual browsers and budding naturalists plenty to gnaw on. A rib-tickling gallery, anything but dry. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
