LS 5623 Advanced Literature for Young Adults

Jenkins, Steve. 2009. NEVER SMILE AT A MONKEY: AND 17 OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780618966202


Review:
There are many unpredictable and potentially dangerous creatures in the world. This nonfiction picture book goes through 17 of such creatures and outlines things that humans should avoid doing in order to not aggravate that creature. Some are obvious, such as "never harass a hippo," others one may not have heard of, such as "never collect a cone shell," which has poisonous barbs.

This book has very good shelf appeal. The image of the monkey staring at you on the front combined with the angry monkey image on the back scream 'pick me up.' Each of the 17 creatures gets an illustration and a full paragraph of what not to do and why it will kill you if you do. At the end is a few pages of more detailed information of each creature, as well as a list of books for further reading. The illustrations are done with cut paper and really pop off of the page. Especially for me the illustration of the African buffalo, which looks like it's done with crushed velvet. It is a topic sure to catch the attention of children.






Connections:
Discuss local dangerous animals with children.

*More books on dangerous animals:
Simon, Seymour. 101 Questions and Answers About Dangerous Animals. ISBN 9780021795239
Eriksson, Christer; Susan Lumpkin, and John Seidensticker. Dangerous Animals. ISBN 9780783547626


Image credit: www.greatkidsreads.blogspot.com