Hippos Can't Swim and Other Fun Facts by Laura Lyn DiSiena and Hannah Eliot

Hippos Can't Swim and Other Fun Facts by Laura Lyn DiSiena and Hannah Eliot, illustrated by Pete Oswald

Rating: 4 stars

Please pack this book with you the next time you're going to the zoo!  It screams for all families to do so.  Give a book what it wants, please!

Authors DiSiena and Eliot dug through the zillions of animal facts out there and produced some really fun ones, then placed them together in such a way that a story-less book has a nice rhythm to it.  Lorelei  (now 7) laps up this sort of silly, nonfiction stuff on a normal basis but now, in her first week of Nature Science Camp, is even happier to get her hands on anything science-related. But the book held Kiefer's (now 3) attention easily--the facts might not have stuck as I read this to him over lunch, but the pictures made him laugh and ask questions, like "Why that turtle wearing socks?" Curiosity has got to start somewhere…!

Here are some fun tidbits we learned:

Kangaroos have pouches too, but kangaroos are marsupials. This means that their pouches are used to carry their babies. As you probably know, kangaroos hop everywhere.  They use their strong back legs to hop, and their muscular tails for balance. If you bounce on a pogo stick, you can hop like a kangaroo, too! 

Herons catch fish by standing still for long periods of time and waiting for the fish to swim by. That may sound boring to you, but herons do it to survive!

This is a great book that grabbed the attention of all three of my kids, despite their different ages and interests, which makes it successful and great in this mom's opinion!