Animal Planet’s Strange, Unusual, Gross, and Cool Animals by Charles Gingha is nifty collection of some of the wildest critters on our wonderful, wonderful planet. I read this book with my cublings, and we all learned tons of new and fascinating facts. The girls and I loved the little poems at the beginning of each section. The boys, not as much. Haha, except my little poet.

 

There are myriad pictures to engage young eyes (and adult ones too!). They stole my tablet and read it again with das/uncles, especially to share the dragonish creatures and scorpions/spiders. Jonas keeps scorpions and Drake and Charley love dragons.

 

Some fun facts inside…

 

*The Darwin’s frog- male holds the baby tadpoles in its vocal sac til they become froglets.

 

*The kakapo- the heaviest parrot. It does not fly, but is a skilled climber with strong feet. It uses its stubby wings for gliding from tree tops.

 

*The 2016 discovery of a beautiful jelly in the Mariana Trench.

 

*The lion-mane jelly has a bell 8 ft in diameter and tentacles up to 100 ft long.

 

????? Highly recommended, especially for kids who are wild about animals and nature. Also as an educational tool for middle-graders.