I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I learned lots of interesting facts about many animals with this book. The photography of these strange animals is spectacular.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for a honest review.

Sometimes I like to spice my reading up and throw in the odd non fiction. I requested this from Netgalley because having a degree in Animal Science, this is a topic I find most interesting.

This was a 3⭐ read, it contained lots of interesting animals with some great photography. There was a great selection of examples, with a good balance of well known animals and those which are lesser known and bizarre.The content is organised by continents. In my opinion I would have preferred the content to be organised by habitat e.g. hot desserts, the oceans, rainforest etc. It could have then been further organised by grouping within the habitats e.g. birds, mammals and reptiles.

A nice interesting read that you're sure to find a fact that will suprise you. Impress your guests this Christmas and make some great table conversations!

Organized by region, Strange Animals by Tom Jackson looks at some of the most unusual critters around the world. From the tuatara to the anteater, readers will be introduced to myriad marvelous faunal facts. Each section has a short written introduction, with the remainder of the chapter being gorgeous photos, with interesting facts about the animal depicted. For instance, hyenas are related to the mongoose!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley & Amber Books for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A wonderful photographic guide to some of the most interesting and underrated animals on the planet.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tom Jackson, and Amber Books Ltd, Amber Books for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

I LOVED the images of strange and cute and graceful animals. I couldn´t stop smiling while going through this book. I discovered some new favorite animals. Grea book!

I love this book and loved the photos. Bizzarre, strange and some lovely animals I discovered.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Having seen several books a bit like this for children over the years, it's nice to see a proper adult look at the world's wackiest, ugliest and plain bonkers lifeforms. A rain frog who didn't get the memo about having a shape other than 'blob', a turtle that exudes a musk as defence, and of course an axolotl – this covers them all by continent. Wondrous photos (apart for those bound to pee off arachnophobes) delight on each and every page, whether the subjects are cute or decidedly grim and lethal. Yes, this is on the trivial side of such Amber Books publications, yes you could get two sequels from the sea life alone (we delve under the waters here and there and with a short closing chapter) and no the boxing shrimp is left out, but this is still practically as good as it could be.

Strange Animals by Tom Jackson is currently scheduled for release on May 14 2023. How does a mudskipper fish manage to “walk” on land? Why is the Hoatzin also known as ‘The Stinkbird’? And once the female Pipa toad has laid her eggs, where does she put them? The answers? The mudskipper can “walk” using its pectoral fins, the Hoatzin has a unique digestive system which gives the bird a manure-like odor, and the female Pipa Toad embeds its eggs on its back where they develop to adult stage. Strange Animals presents the most unusual aspects of 100 of the most unusual species. The selection spans a broad spectrum of wildlife, from the tallest land living mammal, the giraffe, to the light, laughing chorus of Australian kookaburra birds, from the intelligence of the Bottlenose dolphin to octopuses that change color when they dream to the slow pace of the three-toed sloth. Arranged geographically, the photographs are accompanied by fascinating captions, which explain the quirky characteristics of each entry. Including egg-laying mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, cannibalistic insects and other invertebrates.

Strange Animals is a book that captured my attention and interest with its title. I love learning about the odd and unexpected animals in the world. Since I have read and watched so much information on the subject, I do have to say that very little of this book was new to me. Most of the animals were ones I had run across in the past, or creatures I do not consider odd or unusual at all. That being said, the photographs through out the entire book are phenomenal. I liked the short paragraphs of information, which gave interesting and easily digestible bits of information on the creatures in the book- but the start of this show unequivocally the photographs on each and ever page. It is worth the cost of this book, or borrow from the library, to sit and leisurely flip through the pages and just enjoy the fantastic photographs or these animals.

This book combines two of my favourite things, photography and fun facts. Because I’ve devoured so many books with fascinating, adorable and weird animals over the years, there wasn’t a lot of information that was new to me here. It was still an entertaining read, though, and I loved the photos.

It’s always hard to choose my favourite facts. This time around I’ve picked two from each section: Asia, Africa, Australasia, North America, Central & South America, Europe and Oceans. They’re a combination of my favourite animals, photos and facts.

A tarsier’s eye is bigger than its brain.

At around 35cm (14 inches) from snout to tail, the tokay is the world’s largest gecko.

A naked mole-rat queen “controls her workers using chemicals in her urine.”

The African fat-tailed gecko uses the fat stored in its tail when food becomes scarce.

The duck-billed platypus detects electrical currents produced by its prey with its bill.

Echidnas are related to the platypus. “It too lays eggs, and the pointed snout is sensitive to electricity given out by insect prey.”

The thorn bug is a treehopper. “It sits on a twig and jabs its pointed mouthpart into plants.”

The rubber boa ties itself in a knot when it’s threatened.

The pink river dolphin is born grey. When its skin rubs against objects, it becomes pinker.

The axolotl was named after the Aztec god of fire and lightning.

The wisent (European bison) is Europe’s largest wild land animal.

The Atlantic puffin’s diet consists solely of fish.

The Christmas tree worm grows on coral reefs around the world.

The Pacific hagfish have a “spiral of teeth that they twist into corpses to drill out a cylinder of flesh.”

NB: The images I’ve included in my review are screenshots of the eARC. The colours may look different in the book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amber Books for the opportunity to read this book.

✨ARC Book Review✨
📚Strange Animals - Tom Jackson
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
📖pub date: May 14th, 2023

If you like the animal channel, science in general, or even just animals, this book is for you. This book was showing me animals that I have never heard of all over the world. It also showed me a ton of animals that I should never mess with because um scary.

The photographs in the books are super amazon! I love when books like this has photos because I can really visualize the thing being talked about.

The one thing that I personally would have liked it the book is for the names to be written out how you would pronounce them. I had no idea what most of the animals were, and some of the names were hard to figure out. Other than that, the book was super good.

I would 100% recommend this book. And I'm definitely thinking about going through the book and rating each animal from 1 being cute and safe to 10 being super scary.😅

Animals in all their beautiful glory. Some not as strange as others, based on your own perception and prior knowledge, but still just as interesting.

Another wonderful book of photography that I have come to expect from Amber Books.

Strange Animals takes its readers all over the world, showing us some very unique and uniquely strange creatures, in terms of looks and/or behaviour.
Did you know that the tarsier is a primate species in Asia whose eyeballs are bigger than its brain? Incidentally, I love tarsiers but I never realised they're primates, and I think their Dutch name is just brilliant: spookdiertje, which translates as little ghost animal.
The Saiga's weird nose, the leaping mudskipper, the African lungfish that absorbes oxygen in a lung and creates a waterproof bag of skin and mucus to survive dry spells, the Nano chameleon that is only 22 mm (0.9 in) long (tail included), the naked mole-rat and the wētā (which are the stuff of nightmares), the way marsupials are born and borne, the peacock spider (even I have to admit this is one very impressive little guy - on paper, I don't need to see it in real life, thank you), the star-nosed mole (for a second there, I thought something was wrong with the photo, my brain could not compute), the red-lipped batfish and the Dumbo octopus and the leafy seadragon, ... Seriously, the list is endless, and so is my love for this stunning book. I would very highly recommend it to anyone who loves to learn about and look at (quirky) animals.

Fabulous! This is a great read, it's a visual feast and full of uncommon beasties and critters. I wish the author had created more awareness regarding the endangered statusmof more of them, while he does mention the sturgeon, there's no word on the pangolin, on the brink of extinction. But other than that I loved it.

4 stars.

Tom Jackson’s books are always filled with gorgeous photographs and insanely fascinating information. As the name of this one implies, it features animals that might be discarded by science fiction movies as being too weird. Creatures that only their mother could love (like the naked mole-rat); animals that look like one thing but are another (lizards that look like a worm or a snake); and critters that look unremarkable but have hidden talents (like the mudskipper). Amphibians, mammals, insects, fish, smaller than a coin and almost as large as a whale, as much as I read about animals, many creatures featured here were unknown to me. I had no trouble with those images but, word to the squeamish, there are large, colorful pictures of scary spiders, insects like the weta, or snakes. Some animals were so strange that I tried to figure out what they were. Sometimes I was completely off, such as a fish who walks! The last chapter, dedicated to our oceans, shows such bizarre creatures that they look alien. The photographs are just fabulous, they reveal every detail, every hair, every scale, every nail and tooth. Every animal here is beautiful in their own way and this book is a pleasure to peruse.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Amber Books!

Strange Animals
5 Fantastic Stars

Strange Animals is a picture book packed full of gorgeous pictures. Including animals, birds, insects, reptiles and underwater creatures from around the world. Below or beside each animal, the picture contains the name of the animal, its ecosystem, and interesting or fun facts.

My favorite section is Australia. I was excited about the new-to-me creatures (I'm from the US). I am impressed with the stunning, close-up photos of the insects and birds. I've noticed there isn't many photos of insects in animal books. My family and I were intrigued by honeypot ants. Can't say I've seen anything like them.

Overall, I loved this book. It's easy to navigate, by continents. I can't get enough of Tom Jackson's photography; it's so inspiring. I'd recommend Strange Animals for any animal lover, classroom, or artist. Strange Animals would be a good fit for any library: public, school, or private. Thank you, NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd, for an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Great photos of spectacular animals. The cute, the bizarre and the beautiful… The book is organized by continent and each photo is accompanied by a short explanatory text about the animal. If you love watching nature documentaries, you will probably like this. Great fun and a nice coffee table book.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

I enjoyed this well enough, but nothing that I hadn't already seen and nothing particularly strange. I feel like there are a lot of far stranger animals out there that would.have made for a much more interesting book

Strange Animals by Tom Jackson - 5/5
I love this book. I mean just look at that cover It is filled with so many different animals from all over the world and I love every moment of it. There are animals from Asia, Australasia, Europe, Oceans and more. The photos are beautiful and detailed, the added information of the animals is a great learning aspect.

Strange Animals by Tom Jackson, Publication by Amber Books Ltd is available for purchase April 2023.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

The artwork in this book is amazing. I'm a photographer myself, and man, I envy some of the talent shown here.

I loved that I got to learn something new. I kinda adored the golden-snub nosed monkey. Not going to lie. haha.

This book was WELL WORTH the read. And now I kind of want to buy a physical copy for my house!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

I loved this book. It will make a wonderful coffee table book. I only wished there was a closer picture of the Tree Progolin so we could compare it to the similar Armoured ant eater next to it.

I also wish the manatees little flipper nails were seen.