Scary: Introducing the World’s Scariest Animals

With a startling illustration of an African lion on the front cover, this beautifully presented hardback will make the young reader sit up and take note! The book aims to educate young people about their fears and anxieties regarding animals, and to alleviate these feelings as they read through the volume and discover that some of the animals actually keep us safe.

Bite-sized paragraphs mean that the youngster can take in lots of information without becoming too overwhelmed. When I compose book reviews I always start by making notes about interesting features and parts of the book I would like to emphasize. In this case my notes are bursting with discoveries I made as I read! I learned about the southern cassowary which has ‘a long, dagger-like toenail on each foot that can be up to 10 centimetres (cm) long!’ and has in fact only killed one human and that was when a human was trying to kill it (p.12).

Each time I discovered a new fact this propelled me to keep reading. I never knew that the goosebumps we sometimes get when we are scared were what made our ancestors’ fur stand on end to make them look larger than they were (p.25). The scope of this book is very wide as it covers how these animals are helping the planet by their actions. In the case of the death stalker scorpion, it possesses an amazing ingredient in its venom which ‘only attaches to cancer cells’ (p.39) and is thus helping the medical world.

On each spread devoted to an animal there is a poem about it, and these verses have been co-written by students at the schools mentioned on the final page. Well done to all involved as this adds another interesting dimension to the book. The illustrations throughout are striking and beautifully executed. In particular I loved the gossamer worm with its yellow glow (pp.10-11) and the edible pink, brown and red headless chicken monster (pp.28-29).

I highly recommend this fascinating book which will keep the reader engrossed, and curious to learn more. It is definitely worth five stars!