Description
Product description
About the Author
Philip Bunting‘s books have been translated into multiple languages, and published in over 25 countries around the world. Since his first title was published in 2017, Philip has received multiple accolades, including Honours from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and making the list for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2018. His titles include Mopoke and How Did I Get Here? Philip’s work deliberately encourages playful interaction between the reader and child, allowing his books to create a platform for genuine intergenerational engagement, and fun.
The second title in the series from the hilarious Philip Bunting is filled with facts about some of the weirdest creatures in the natural world.
The antagonist voice (speaking though cheeky annotations) points out the apparent ridiculousness of each creature’s features, while the narrator’s voice describe the evolutionary reasons or advantages for each animal’s extraordinary characteristics.
With hilarious text throughout and bright, contemporary illustrations, this guide to ridiculous animals contains funny labelled diagrams and will help teach kids about evolution by studying some of its most wild products!
Quirky Creatures is a series dedicated to seeking out the weird and wonderful denizens of the natural world and explaining why they are so strange, from the ridiculous to the truly terrifying. Also available in this series is The World’s Most Pointless Animals and The World’s Most Atrocious Animals.
Kel –
This book was a hit with my nine year old! They loved the quirky humour and the funny names given to each of the animals.The artwork is wonderfully fun and colourful and the information is both accessible and entertaining. This is a great book for any child’s bookcase.
PattyMacDotComma –
5★“The World’s Most Ridiculous (*Marvelous) Animals… (*or are they?)”That’s the actual title of this absolutely delightful and mind-boggling book, ostensibly for children, but my goodness it was interesting for this adult reader. First, the table of contents. I have included the handwritten captions of the illustrations.The caption for Picture 1:“Not a fish… Sonic, but not a hedgehog… Fancy pants… Playing possum… Snappy dresser”The first page explains how animals have evolved and been shaped by their environment. The illustration is a row of Gerenuk, a kind of antelope, beginning with one of average size and ending with one with long legs and a long neck. This is part of the note under the six stages of change, which I include to show how humour and fact are mixed.The caption for Picture 2:“Adaptations can include physical characteristics like extraordinary feathers… ”Later in the book we meet the Gerenuk as they are today.The caption for Picture 3:“Litocranius walleri Lankelope necktacularis. In Somali, ‘gerenuk’ means ‘giraffe-necked’. I can’t imagine why they have this name.”The little ‘handwritten’ notes beside the artwork are a mix of fun and facts. At the bottom is a more comprehensive paragraph of about a hundred words, describing the animal and its habitat.He then takes us around the world, sharing the most wonderful creatures. What’s not to love about these crabs, (except being pinched of course).The caption for Picture 4:“Decorator crab majoidea incognito pincheus These creative crustaceans come equipped with a velcro-like texture on their shell, which comes in very handy when you have a taste for dressing up.”If you can’t read the words in the illustration, I’ll share a bit of the wit (that may make you groan – but smile.)“Keep your kelp close and your anemones closer… Absolutely crabulous… Decorator crabs don’t like to share their ornaments. They are a little shellfish… Snappy Dresser… High fashion in the low seas.”There are so many pages of wonderful animals, and all jokes aside, the information is good, and I’m glad that the proper name of each animal is included so kids can follow up one that interests them.Picture 5 is the In Closing page.In closing, he comments that animals have adapted in order to survive in their environments and we hairy humans should learn from them. We’re all living here together. I think it will help kids appreciate the variety of animals everywhere, and I’d like to think it might make them think about looking after them and their environment.He does not mention disappearing habitat or those animals who are extinct or going extinct. It’s not that kind of book, but it’s hard for me to read it now without being aware that today’s animals probably aren’t going to be able to “adapt” fast enough.Still, it’s a delightful book to browse through – the kind of thing you want to say to someone in the room “Hey, did you know about this? Have you ever seen one of these?”
Emanuele Gavi –
Ottima serie di libri
Volutosi onda mio figlio peccato per i lunghi tempi di attesa nane è valsa la pena
Amazon Customer –
The kids LOVE it!
I work in afterschool care. The kids I work with love picking a creature to read about and discuss. I love the animals they chose for this book, and eagerly await another book in the series.
Aaron McDonald –
Good gift for kids
Bought this for a cousin’s daughter for Christmas. She really enjoyed it and has asked for the other book in the series. Fun and educational.
Amy –
Great gift
Was given as a gift for an 8 Yr old boy. He absolutely loved it. 10/10
Melnik –
Funny, but a bit repetitive.
An illustrated book aimed at children, The World’s Most Ridiculous Animals introduces kids to animals that are a bit ridiculous.Each page is an entry on an animal (there are a few entries that are double-paged.) At the top is the common name of the animal. Underneath the common name is the scientific name of the animal, crossed out, and a jokey scientific name written below it. The middle of the page is taken up by a cutesy illustration of the animal, with arrows and captions bordering the illustration, providing humorous comments on the animal. At the bottom of the page is a paragraph giving a more proper explanation of the animal.The entries are funny, but the humor can get repetitive by the end. The target audience would enjoy it better than any older reader whom the child roped in to read it for them. Also, while some of the animals included truly earned the right to be called ridiculous, others do not. Anyone who is into learning about animals has probably read about more ridiculous animals. Of course, for the target audience, this would probably be their introduction to many of these animals, so to them, they are ridiculous.Finally, the store page lists this for 5-8-year-olds. I would raise the age for kids who are trying to read this by themselves as there are certainly words that highly challenge kids in that age range. Now, if an older person is reading to or assisting them, then it is more appropriate.
Dinosaurs and Mermaids, mom of both –
Funny and interesting
My oldest and myself both found this to be an entertaining book. It definitely made me laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, but it did make for a fun read. Even the illustrations were comical looking. My son is all about quirky and unusual things so he really got a kick out of this book.
MigasPT –
Such a cute kids’ book!
We love the first volume of this book, so we were excited to see they were releasing another one in the collection. The first one was The World’s Most Pointless Animals, so now it’s time for the The World’s Most Ridiculous Animals. This is another really cute book with a nice hardcover and great binding. The pages are a thick cardstock that makes it great for little fingers to flip through. Each page has nice colorful images and plenty of information about all these “ridiculous” animals. My children have learned about so many animals they may have never heard about if it weren’t for these books. My son will often bring up some silly animal we read about and asks me to look up more pictures or more information about the animals. It is great to teach children about new animals, as well as open up their curiosity about other animals they may be unaware of! My kids love these books and I look forward to more of them being released!
scubascaff –
Fun
It’s a really fun book that we’ve been reading at bedtime. Interesting animals and fun dialog to read to kids! The illustrations are rich and the printing is exquisite, an heirloom type book you’ll save for your grandkids or give as a quality gift. I took one star off because some of the words are way too big for the target audience, I find myself having to often explain what a large word means mid sentence to my 5 and 8 year olds.