WEIRD, WILD, AMAZING!

The popular naturalist reaches for a younger audience with a mix of basic and oddball facts about more than 50 wild creatures.

With much reference to “poo and goo,” Flannery, whose books for adults include Europe: A Natural History (2019), ratchets down his usual level of discourse to focus on essentials: the “weaponized vomit” of turkey vultures, for instance, “Snot Studies,” and anatomical insights such as the special help that tree kangaroos get from masses of stomach worms in digesting their food. The entries, loosely organized by habitat, each also offer standard-issue observations on geographical range, typical diet, distinctive physical features, and, often, challenges posed by climate or environmental change. Along with an autobiographical introduction and personal notes about encounters with some of his wild subjects, the author tucks in glances at broad topics such as evolution, extinction, and scientific nomenclature too. Caldwell goes mostly for splashes of bright color and silly riffs in his illustrations, so naturalistic detail takes a back seat to a male blue whale in a lounge singer’s dress, courting scorpion and seahorse couples in ballroom garb, and like follies. Some readers may find this a bit long for a cover-to-cover read, but any who relish learning about a tree-climbing turtle or how moths “love pretending to be things they’re not, like hornets or eyeballs or lumps of poop,” will be well rewarded.

Better suited to dipping than diving, but a “fun book,” as promised.