Whose bones are those?

Colorful, bold type; brightly saturated backgrounds; and simple, clean design set the tone for a concept book that doubles as a surprisingly joyous celebration of bones. A friendly-looking hippo faces its own skeleton on the book cover. Inside, each two-spread animal-guessing-game sequence begins by asking "Whose bones?" followed by a page of jumbled bones from the animal in question. On the next spread the bones have resolved into a full skeleton on the verso; and finally on the recto, the living animal, drawn in a simple, cartoonish style, is revealed. The concluding pages of the book are where things get complicated, as viewers are presented with an entire double-page spread of jumbled bones, including six different skulls -- a hint at how many skeletons are present. Discerning which bones belong together to form each complete skeleton may make children think differently about how scientists learn from materials found in nature. Brief back matter identifies all the skeletons as being from vertebrates and gives facts about some of the animals. Front endpapers consisting of an array of human skeletons with a few interspersed oddities resolve on the closing endpapers into a parade of children (with a robot and an alien hidden among them). A strong choice for curious young scientists. Laura Koenig July/August 2022 p.103(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Can you match the skeletons with their animals? After being presented with a group of bones splayed across the page, readers are asked to guess what kind of animal they belong to. The next page depicts the bones put together in a skeleton as a hint; finally, the answer is revealed. Some animals are relatively easy, like the flamingo, but some are more difficult, like the lion. All animals featured in this book are vertebrates, though not all are mammals--a turtle, a whale, a giraffe, a snake, a crocodile, an elephant, a bat, a penguin, a reindeer, and a rhinoceros round out the cast. Humans are not included in the installments, but human skeletons are featured on the front endpapers, while a diverse group of human children can be found in the back endpapers along with two robots. Takeuchi's colors are bold and bright, yet the backgrounds are plain--the animals' natural habitats are not included. Children will enjoy using this charming book both as a way to learn about animals and to play the matching and guessing game. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A whimsical reminder that all animals--including humans--are just a heap of bones! (fun facts) (Informational picture book. 2-5) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.