George Peck (2)

This is a two-in-one book. You don’t flip the book over and start reading from the other side and meet in the middle, as in a few other children’s books I’ve read. Instead this one just continues in the second half it abruptly has another title page, copyright page, full content of the second book. They’re both rather short. But packed with a lot of facts!

Each page has a different subject focus in Squirrels, and the front has what looks like a table of contents, but instead of show more chapters it lists a bunch of questions kids might have about the animal- such as where does it live? what does it eat? what do baby squirrels look like? with numbered pages (in order) where you find the answer. Different, maybe easier this way for children to find the info they want (the back has an index and page of harder words with definitions as well). For all the familiarity I have with squirrels, I did learn some things- such as that North America has a red squirrel- very common in forested areas- it’s smaller than the grey squirrel and doesn’t have ear tufts like the European red squirrel. I just see the grey squirrels so much where I live that I tend to forget how many other kinds there are- sixty five species in this country alone! That includes ground squirrels and flying squirrels, which the book mentions but mostly it is focused on the red squirrel and grey squirrel (at least in the pictures). I also learned a bit more about their behavior- according to this book, the tail jerks accompanied by rapid scolding is a squirrel threatening an intruder (human, squirrel or otherwise) to leave its territory. The faster the tail moves, the more upset the squirrel is. Squirrels don’t do any housecleaning- when their nest or den gets too messy, they just leave and make a new one! They don’t only eat nuts, but also berries, fruit, seeds, insects and even bird eggs. And yes, squirrels groom themselves with their tongue, and the young grow very quickly- well on their own by four months old.

The second half of this book is Frogs. It has the same formatting and layout- questions list in lieu of a table of contents, brief glossary of some terms in the back, index. Likewise it is full of facts about where frogs live, what they eat, how the spawn grow, and especially details on that remarkable transformation from water-dwelling tadpole to air-breathing four-legged animal that hops on land. Also explained is the difference between frogs and toads, and how frogs breathe through their skin. I already knew some of the info- like how frogs swallow by pushing their eyeballs down against their throat, or how they make such loud, resonate sounds when the males call and sing. I didn’t know before, that you can tell male and female frogs apart by comparing the size of the tympanum to the eye- it’s larger on a male, smaller on a female. I also learned that when the young ones transition from water to land, they spend several days not eating. They have four legs but still a tail at this point, and as the tail shrinks the frog absorbs the nutrients stored in it, into the body. When the tail is completely gone, the frog is fully transformed and starts hunting for food. And that while still a tadpole, they can regrow limbs that might get lost- but loose this ability when they are an adult frog. Things to know!

Note: both titles were originally published in 1985, but my book is a newer edition with some revised or added content in 2000. Each section has 48 pages, the entire volume is 96 pages long. show less