Praise for Animal Snacks

Animal Snacks Review, February 2013, Science Books & Films

Like the book's cover, there is just enough yuck factor to induce any reader to explore the complexities of food webs. Interesting and colorful images accentuate the appropriately zesty humor and global flavor of the text. Intriguing snapshots of what animals eat convey as broad and sophisticated an understanding of adaptations for feeding as you can expect in 90 pages. This not just a regurgitation of what we've all seen before; there is just enough depth without sacrificing clarity, and just enough new vocabulary without being diverted by jargon. A few easy tweaks to how the book is organized would have made taxonomic relationships clearer (for example, whales, manatees, and dugongs are indeed mammals and geckos are reptiles). The book concludes with two nifty lists. One is a tried and true teaching strategy a list of things for which to scavenge in the book's pages. But also there is a glossary with keywords that, as the author points out, might be more useful in searching (foraging) for additional information than what kids are prone to come up.
—Diane Bellis, AgSource, Inc., Washington, DC

Archimedes Notebook, February 2013
Cabin Fever Cure - Animal Snacks

Halfway to spring is a dangerous time: it looks bright and sunny outside, but the frigid temperatures sometimes keep us cooped up inside, where it's warm. And that can lead to Cabin Fever.

The best antidote to Cabin Fever I can think of is a book. So this month I'll post reviews of books that are sure to cure the winter blahs.

Animal Snacks, Review by Sue Heavenrich

No, it’s not a cookbook showing how to prepare snacks for your pets. This is a book that celebrates the diversity of things animals eat. From birds to snakes to jellyfish to moose, Dawn Cusick details the diets of creatures from all corners of the animal kingdom. Each page is loaded with color photos depicting iguanas eating cactus, turtles eating sea anemones, fish eating crabs, crabs eating coral, snails eating frog eggs … and more.

Think all birds eat the same thing? They don’t. Hummingbirds like sweets, finches prefer seeds, bluebird nestlings feast on grubs, and gulls go for the seafood buffet. Squid go for shrimp, geckos dine on grasshoppers, and badgers eat just about anything.

Cusick introduces the book with a brief explanation of food chains, defines a host of terms including “producer” and “consumer”, provides a smorgasbord of delectable photos accompanied by minimal text. This book will have young nature lovers browsing, grazing, and coming back for second helpings.