Book Review: Lesser Spotted Animals: The Coolest Creatures You've Never Heard Of by Martin Brown

Lesser Spotted Animals: The Coolest Creatures You’ve Never Heard Of
by Martin Brown (j590 Bro)

I recently read this book with my animal-loving second grader, and I would say I enjoyed it as much as he did. The premise, as explained in the introduction, is to skip the familiar wild animals that we all know well (tigers, pandas, sharks, etc.) and introduce the reader to a batch of equally fascinating but nearly unknown creatures. Each two-page spread features an animal with a couple of paragraphs about it, plus a pullout box with size, what they eat, where they live, endangered status, and another random/interesting fact.

 

The tone of the book is playful, lighthearted and even occasionally snarky. At one point as we read my son laughed out loud — not something that usually happens when reading animal nonfiction. The creature illustrations are perfectly matched to the style of the book — detailed and in realistic color tones, but also a little cartoonish; the creatures often sport wry expressions and goofy speech bubbles.

 

We’ve read a lot of nonfiction books about animals and this one is exceptionally memorable and enjoyable, both for the fascinating creatures it describes and for its humor and style.

 

( official Martin Brown Illustrator web site )

 

Recommended by Laura N.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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