Fish farts and other amazing ways animals adapt by Joanne Settel, illustrated by Natasha Donovan

 Joanne Settel has written a number of quirky, hilarious books from Exploding Ants, which is the most similar to this current book, to her collections of anatomy-themed poetry, like Your amazing digestion from mouth through intestine. 

Her latest work focuses on animal adaptations. The book is a picture book layout, with pages of text alternating with full page illustrations. The book is divided into sections with different animals illustrating how they have adapted to communicate and hide from predators, adaptations around poop and internal organs, and mutualism/parasites. There's also an extensive glossary.

Readers will be delighted to learn about how whale poop feeds a whole ecosystem, how an elephant communicates with vibrations, and of course how wood frogs can freeze solid in the winter and then revive in the spring, a favorite of mine! There are lots of interesting new facts, at least to me, from why giraffes have a blue tongue to the connections between moths and sloth poop.

Settel has a lively, readable style and this is paired with vibrant illustrations from Canadian artist Natasha Donovan. Vivid green lizards, capuchin monkeys with their fingers up each other's noses, and a yellow-brown frog puking up a bombardier beetle are just a few of the memorable illustrations in this book.

Verdict: A strong addition to any animal collection, this is an attractive and readable nonfiction book that is sure to find an audience in most libraries, public or school. The mix of disgusting and informative is just right and the length of the book is perfect with Donovan's stunning illustrations nicely breaking up the text. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9781665918831; Reinforced binding $15.19 on Baker & Taylor

Published July 2024 by Atheneum; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library