By Bibi Dumon Tak
Illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen
Translated by Nancy Forest-Flier
Levine Querido, 2025
223 pages
978-1-64614-510-2
Ages 8-12
A series of oral reports on animals is delivered by other animals in a fiction/nonfiction hybrid that is equal parts hilarious and informative. A cleaner fish presents on its “favorite customer” the shark, who has “yummy leftovers between his teeth.” Some animals choose their subjects based on similarities between them: A zebra talks about purely black-and-white animals, and a midwife toad points out that both midwife toads and koalas carry their young with them. Animals in the audience chime in with questions, comments, and even criticism. (“I would like to know how you can sleep at night after all the murders you’ve committed of members of my family,” a goose asks a fox, who delivers a controversial report on geese.) Alongside ample animal trivia, tips on research and presentations are cleverly woven into the narrative (A howler monkey who gives a presentation on unicorns is told, “You have to say ‘I consulted such-and-such a book.’”), and misinformation is dispelled (Gila monsters do not have the “breath of death.”). Subjects and presenters are wide-ranging and include insects, arachnids, fish, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, birds, and mammals. The final chapter on compiling an index is the cherry on top of this fresh, brilliant volume (or the breast on the goose carcass, if you’re the fox). Full-page, color portraits of the animal subjects contribute to the playfulness. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center