Title: Sensational Australian Animals
Author: Stephanie Owen Reeder
Illustrator: Cher Hart
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Publication date: February 2024
Themes: The five senses, animal behaviour and physical animal features
Comprehensive Teacher Notes are available on the CSIRO Publishing website.
Sensational Australian Animals by Stephanie Owen Reeder, illustrated by Cher Hart and published by CSIRO Publishing, begins by asking the reader a thought-provoking question, “What sensations do you associate with Australia?”. Numerous vivid descriptions relating to Australian animals and the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are provided, each of these are a springboard to conjure up other personal experiences with Australian creatures in the city, suburbs, countryside, bush, rainforest, outback, desert or beach. This highly original book, brimming with fascinating and sometimes quirky facts, includes over 145 Australian animals and explores them through the senses. The contents page is divided into five sections – The eyes have it! Did you hear that? Follow your nose! That’s tasty! (This section includes information about bush tucker including edible insects) and What a feeling! This book also includes a glossary and animal index.
Each section begins with a labelled cross section diagram of the particular organ of the body that relates to the sense. The following page discusses how each sense works in humans and compares and contrasts this with those in some Australian animals, focusing on how the animals use the sense to source food, protect themselves and survive. For example, in the section titled, The eyes have it, there is information about human pupils and animals with slitted pupils and goes on to discuss horizontal and vertical slits as well as animals with wavy or patterned pupils.
In this book readers will become acquainted with a seaside animal that can have up to 200 eyes and if one gets damaged they grow a new one (p. 14), a shark whose eyeballs are covered in tiny teeth (p. 15) , a frog that quacks (p26), turtles that breathe through their bottoms (p. 35) and the most venomous creature in the animal kingdom (p.54) to name a few. Each double page spread contains a sensational fact box (featuring an animal and illustration), accessible information in the form of a paragraph with an accompanying illustration for each creature. Words that appear in bold text are included in the glossary.
This book is visually driven, the layout is captivating with accessible text and lively illustrations which ensure readers are not only informed, but also highly engaged. The illustrator, Cher Hart is a nature illustrator, graphic designer with a background in biology.
This is a book that will captivate both young and older readers as they linger on the pages soaking up the information both in the text and illustrations.