Cute, funny, vaguely sarcastic in a winning way. Nice introduction to animals that many of us have never heard of in a very accessible and appealing format. ( )

Picture book of fantastic creatures written in Spanish.

read about RARE animals ( )

This is a collection of animals which are generally overlooked, not talked about, not included in animal books, and generally unknown. As he says in the introduction, "This book celebrates some of the thousands of mammals the never get seen and never get talked about even though they are every bit as amazing or weird or beautiful as their overexposed cousins." He also makes the very valid point that no one cares if an animal they've never heard of goes extinct, but they might be willing to fight to protect animals they know about. ( )

Martin Brown, the author of this delightful and hilarious collection of animals, is apparently the illustrator of the "Horrible Histories" series. I think these is more popular in the UK though - nobody around here reads them. Anyways, I didn't need to know his previous work to love this book.

As the introduction explains, this book is all about the less popular, or less well-known mammals of the world. They might be endangered, rare, or just not a popular creature but each one gets a full spread with funny pictures, basic facts and status, and interesting tidbits of knowledge.

Once you've browsed through this book, you'll know about the Lesser Fairy Armadillo, Silvery Gibbon, Russian Desman, Banded Linsang (featured on the cover), Hirola, and many more.

The only back matter is a glossary and explanation of endangered status terms (least concern, extinct, etc.) so I certainly wouldn't recommend using this for research. However, it's just right for browsing. The reading level is middle grade but the text is not so dense that interested younger children won't be able to sit still for some listening.

Verdict: A fun and unique addition to your animal book section. Recommended.

ISBN: 9781338089349; US edition published 2017 by Scholastic; Borrowed from another library in my consortium