Member Reviews

Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for the ARC of this!

Cute, fun and informative, this captured my kids attention well. The illustrations were adorable and I loved the variety of animals depicted! There was a good amount of text per page. My one issue is that a lot of the puns were maybe a little too old for the intended audience. My 9 year old got about half of them, including explaining one to me that went right over my head 😅 but my 6 year old didn’t laugh at any of them, so I don’t think that he caught any of them.

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Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of The World's Most Ridiculous Animals by Philip Bunting. What a delightful and hysterical book! There are many books about animals, but this is one of the best I have read! The blending of humor and facts will grab even the most reluctant reader. The author describes over 50 common as well as unique animals with interesting facts that kids and adults will find informative. Many of the facts describe the adaptations of the animal for survival. Each page also has an wonderful illustration with labels and captions with more facts and funny comments, for example a markhor had a caption that read "ridiculous ankle warmers" for the white tufts of fur above its hooves and a hairy anglerfish had a label that read "a hairdresser's worst nightmare" referring to the pointy hairs/spikes on the top of its body. On each page the animal name is listed with its Latin name crossed out and a humorous name listed below, such as opposum - deadus fakus and bee hummingbird - nectar vampirus teenyweenius. I laughed out loud so many times reading this book! This book is rich in vocabulary and doesn't talk down to kids. It would be great for kids to read and look at on their own, but could also be wonderful to read together with an adult. The conversation would be full of laughs and learning. I can't wait to share this with elementary age students! (Teachers-get this book for your class. I can see kids crowded around reading and laughing about these animals.)

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I read this with my six year old son and he was in hysterics the whole time! He loved learning the facts while being entertained by the jokes and comments throughout. Will buy this one for sure

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Thank you so much NetGalley and Quatro Publishing for an advanced copy of the book!

I read this with three very hard to please small humans aged 4, 7 and 9 and they were belly laughing, in our house Peacocks will forever be known as Disco Chickenus- the balance between funny and factual is perfect and we learnt so many ridiculous facts!

The illustrations in the book are beautiful and really appealed to me- I'd want prints of so many of the pages.

it's a huge thumbs up from us.

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Review to come July 4th to blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

I was totally over the moon when I spotted that Philip Bunting had a new book about animals out! Last time it was about Pointless Animals (or are they?). This time ridiculous animals! I was hyped to see what kind of ridiculous animals we would be reading about. I was curious if I was going to be laughing as much as I did with his last book.

I loved the collection of animals that made up this book! We have a collection of 55 animals. Anything from birds to spiders to fish to anything else. There were plenty that I recognised when I looked at the content field.. however there were a few that I didn't know or didn't know based on the English name, haha. So I learned some new animals and I love it. Like the adorable Sea Sheep, which isn't really a sheep, but still very cute. Or the  not so cute, but still awesome zombie snail. Also wtf to the Mexican Mole Lizard, what is that nature, what is that? Plus, I am happy to see some of my favourite babies pop up in the book, like my baby Gobi Jerboa (appropriate renamed to Jerboa Goboingi). 

Just like the last time we don't just get boring things about the animals, oh no, we get some really fun things! Again, we get a picture of the animal, but not the boring stuff. Like with the maned wolf (longus leggus lupus is indeed a better Latin name) they have next to their ears the text: "How's the weather up there?". Or at their feet: "Nice socks.". I had such a laugh at the peafowl whose text included: "Every day's Mardi Gras for this guy." I am delighted that the author went for the humour again and made learning about these ridiculous animals fun and interesting. You just want to see what makes up these animals. I also love that he fixed the Latin names to some funnier ones. Here are a couple of my favourites: Markhor (Pongus Goatus), Bee hummingbird (Nectar Vampirus Teenyweenius), Green Basilisk Lizard (Slpishae Sploshea Itsamiraculae), Flamingo (Shrimpus Addictus), Frill-Neck Lizard (Draco Hissyfitium, which just reminds me of a certain character in HP XD), Lowland streaked tenrec (Sonic Notahedgehogium), Velvet Worm (Blastus Fromthe Pastus). 

There are also tons of puns and jokes next to the things I mentioned. Like this one: "Decorator crabs don't like to share their ornaments. They are a little shellfish." or with the hummingbird: "The size of a bee! Sounds like a bee! It is... not a bee." 

Like the previous book the art was just fabulous and I really enjoyed them! It really fitted with the theme of the book on how they were drawn. Still very recognisable but also silly/ridiculous. 

Another book by Philip Bunting that I just got to give 5+ stars! And another one I desperately need for my own collection at home! I would highly recommend this book if you like animals + humour!

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This book made me smile all the way through and is amazing for kids of all ages who are interested in animals! I learned so much about animals, some that I'd never even heard of, and the ways that they've evolved and adapted over time - and even a couple who have been around since the dinosaurs and haven't changed at all! The illustrations are amazing throughout, with snarky comments written in by an antagonist who tries to change what the narrator is relating about the animals (such as changing the Latin names of the animals to things like "Beardus Weirdus") which I, and a lot of kids especially in the middle-grades, will love.

I am always looking for fun books that will introduce more kids to the joys of non-fiction and this title definitely fits the bill! A big thank you to Quarto Publishing/Happy Yak and NetGalley for the early opportunity to read this marvelous/ridiculous book!

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Chock-full of puns, this charming, illustrated educational book about all kinds of weird animals and insects was an entertaining read, full of information I never knew about, even the animals I had already heard of!
The illustrations and funny little notes by the pictures made the experience much more fun than just reading about them. I would recommend this to people of all ages, especially children, that adore animals and bugs of all shapes and sizes.

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A worth reading nonfiction book; both for kids and adults

”All anglerfish are great at geometry”

This is the kind of book that you read with a smile on your face the whole time and, it being a nonfiction book that makes it extra special.

The paragraphs are short but concise and very comprehensive, and the colorful illustrations are not only enjoyable but also helpful to show some of the important aspects the book is talking about.
For that reason, its mix of drawings, facts and humor works perfectly, and makes it the kind of work that is perfect to gain knowledge while having fun.

I’m going to admit that I already knew a few of those animals (I’ve been reading picture books since I can remember, and I really enjoy watching documentaries as well), but at least half of them were brand new for me. If you ask me, the Superb Lyrebird was probably the most interesting of them, and there are some unbelievable videos on the internet that I wouldn’t have watched if I hadn’t read this book.
So yeah, either you’re a kid or an adult, you can get a lot of curious facts (and laughs) from this book.

The Best: I’m thankful that the author uses both metric and imperial system of measurement, so I don’t have to convert the units by myself.

The Worst: Those pages with black background and white text are not so easy to read.

I received this for free via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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80 pages of fun information with colourful, fun illustrations. I mean who doesn't need a fun book like this to gain knowledge!

Okay it's for the kids but we adults also have fun reading such carefully compiled books while reading along with them.

Love the colourful pages and the basic information given in each page.

Learned a lot about these animals and birds. Worth your time. And this book is so beautiful!

Thank you, Quarto Publishing Group- Frances Lincoln Children's Books, for the advance review copy.

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The World's Most Ridiculous Animals is a really fun book to learn more about animals!! I loved the mixture of facts with humor in this book, pointing out ridiculous features of each animal. The illustrations were cartoonish and very fun!!

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