SMELLY STORIES
Seriously Stinky Animals (A Children’s Animal Book With Pictures)
Written by Sophia Aguilera
This book is different from most animal nonfiction books because it has an unusual focus—stinky animals. Humans do have a tendency to think that many animals lack the cleanliness we might prefer, even in our pets. Nothing can top the animals discussed in this book! They are big and small, cute and ugly, and geographically diverse. A few of them are probably familiar to you, but there are many that you probably have never heard discussed. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
The Giant Petrel looks like a giant sea gull with some nasty habits. If you get too close, it vomits up a combination of digested food and oil and sprays it all over you. When you try to escape, it tries to push your nose into it. This bird lives in the Southern Hemisphere way down south where it is very cold. Bombardier Beetles are less than one inch long and live only for a few weeks. When threatened they emit smelly poisonous gases that are as hot as boiling water. These beetles have enough spray to get off twenty-nine shots before the chemical runs out. This type of beetle hides under bark and rocks and lives all over the world except for the Arctic and Antarctic. These tiny carnivores eat other insects. One commonly known stinky animal is the skunk. Skunks don’t smell bad unless approached or threatened. Usually just raising the tail is enough to scare predators. They can spray up to five times and up to a distance of fifteen feet. Skunks hesitate to use their spray because once it runs out, it takes their body almost ten days to make more, leaving them defenseless during that time period. Perhaps the fiercest stinky animal is the Tasmanian Devil. Their teeth and jaws are strong enough to cut through a steel trap. They eat almost any other animal including their own species. Once they kill an animal, they will actually get inside of it while they eat. This makes them really stinky when they come out!
The author gives information on many more animals. After each description, four questions are presented to see how well you remember what you read. Of course the answers are provided to self check. While the picture on the cover might imply that this book is for a younger child, the illustrations inside are actual photographs. The text is more appropriate for tweens, teens and adults. This book is well written with a good dose of humor. Highly recommended for children who are animal lovers, and as a fun reference book for teachers and librarians.
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