Illustrated with bold, eye-catching photographs, each page covers a different animal with some taking up an entire spread. An opening sentence describes some of the creature's oddities, pointed out with colored arrows that match the words. Readers are invited to examine and consider the reasons behind the animals' features before reading the explanation. The sea pig's sentence reads, "What is this eyeless creature? Does it even have a mouth or legs? Colored arrows point to the sea pig's soft feet that move it across the ocean floor, long tentacles that take the place of eyes, sensing food in the dark ocean, and grabbing tentacles around its mouth. Back matter consists of a glossary and index.
Not all the photographs are completely clear and there is a certain element of "look how gross/weird/freaky this creature is" which I like to avoid, but I liked the way Carson shows how the different features are useful in the animals' survival.
Verdict: While this can't measure up to titles like Jess Keating's Pink is for Blobfish and Melissa Stewart's Pipsqueaks, Slowpokes, and Stinkers, it's a great additional collection for younger readers to browse and giggle over and the cover is sure to have it flying off the shelf in no time.
ISBN: 9781454929673; Published January 2019 by Sterling; Borrowed from another library in my consortium
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