Title: Genius Noses: A Curious Animal Compendium
Author: Lena Anlauf & Vitali Konstantinov
Major Themes: Animals, Zoology
Synopsis: Beautiful paintings and engaging text describe all sorts of animals, focusing on their noses and how they use them.
I had some extra time one evening so I started reading Genius Noses to my younger children. I soon realized it was much longer than I had thought it was, so we read several pages and then stopped for the night, but over the next couple of school days, we finished reading it for our science time. What a fun book! Everyone, from my 13-year-old son down to the 3-year-old, loved it. My youngest asked me this morning when we would finish reading the noses book!
Many different animals are highlighted in this picture book. Each animal has a unique nose in some way. We were fascinated by the variety of noses. Some noses are used for snorkels, some are shovels, and some are hands or fingers. A lot of the animals have a full two-page spread, although several pages have an assortment of animals together. All the pictures are beautiful! They are full-color paintings, and the text is very interesting.
What types of animals have made it into the pages of this book? There are the obvious ones, like the elephant with its trunk or the anteater with its long snout. We also enjoyed learning about some lesser-known animals like the elephant seal and flying foxes. I had never heard of the desman before, but it is a fascinating little creature that lives in Russia. And what about the stink badger? Or the leaf-nosed snake and the Pinocchio chameleon from Madagascar? It was amusing to see the proboscis monkey on one page and the snub-nosed monkey on the next!
Genius Noses is a great book for animal lovers. Any child who likes to learn about nature will love studying the pictures in this book. Actually, all ages will like this one; I had the ebook open while I was working on this review, and adult members of the family stopped by my desk to have a look and exclaimed at the beautiful pictures and clever theme! (One more interesting fact about this book: it was translated from German!)
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley, and these are my honest thoughts about it.
No warnings!
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 3 – 4, 5 – 8
Reading Independently—Ages 7 – 9, 8 – 12
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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