The Animal Review

I am all for finding humor in the world around us (especially in science), but this is ridiculous. The jokes are juvenile, and actual facts are few and far between. Each chapter on a different animal contains (almost consistently) one or two interesting facts that would be excellent for discussion. However, they are always followed by more stupid jokes.

The authors also seem to get some amusement from peppering the text with large words that won't be understood by anyone who thinks their jokes are funny. For example: myrmecologist, polypeptide, congenital alopecia, and morphophonemic variation.

Another thing I really didn't like was their explanations of the binomial nomenclature. Some are accurate (Ophiophagus hannah means "snake show more eater"), some are partly accurate (Ailuropoda melanoleuca means "black and white cat foot", not "black and white black cat foot bear who suffers depression") and some are completely inaccurate (Salmonidae does NOT mean "the rest of you are adopted")

My instinct is to tell the authors to cut out the jokes about alcohol consumption and market this book for children. However, that would only serve to perpetuate the idea that evolution can be "genius", "mediocre" or "stupid". It cannot be any of those things, because it is not human; to say such things about evolution is the same as saying them about gravity. The understanding of evolution begins with realizing that it is a force of nature that strictly adheres to logical rules, and this book completely misses the point. It would be one thing to just point out and talk about funny looking animals, but this book perpetually refers to nature and evolution in a "what were they thinking?!" sense, thus ruining its only chance of being either entertaining or educational.

I do not recommend this. show less

This book is hilarious. The authors choose 28 animals, classify them under Land, Sea, Air and Other (for those that occupy more than one) and grade them on arbitrary criteria. Some factual information is thrown in, but mostly it's just one joke after another. As I read it, a pattern began to emerge: the deadlier an animal is, or the more capable it is of ruining a person's day, the higher the grade it received.

I'd have rated it higher, but for one thing. They note at the beginning that any science included is real, but the writing style blurs the line between what is a scientific fact and what is just their hyperbolic humour. Some poor undereducated person out there is going to pick this up someday and read the first paragraph about show more Great White Sharks where the authors claim death by shark is the single largest cause of death in the world, and believe it. Then they're going to go on Facebook, repeat it, claiming 'it's true! I read it in a book!', other undereducated people are going to believe them and it's going to snowball, ultimately ending badly for Great White Sharks, who are already having a rough go of it as it is. More importantly, I think this book would appeal to kids a lot and it's appropriate for middle school aged kids, but some of these "facts" are likely to confuse and possibly leave the kids believing things about the animals that were meant only in fun.

Still, it's a hilarious little book (the authors positively do not like Australia) and I'm happy I was able to finally get ahold of it. show less

Maybe I'm just jaded, but I've found most animal humor books aren't particularly humorous. They're like Garfield, recycling the same old jokes and stereotypes. So you can imagine my delighted surprise when I laughed out loud on several occasions while reading this book. Each animal is graded using an admittedly biased (and often ridiculous) methodology, from the A+ King Cobra to the F-rated Alpaca. The ideas of vulture as college roommate, ants as teen girls, and Nature as moody art student are just so absurd and yet so well done that I couldn't help but giggle. This is one humor book I'd actually recommend. I think I might have to subscribe to the blog now too.

I found this to be a delightful book. I've read some other reviews, and I believe that reviewers didn't understand that this was strictly a humorous book for adults and very little should be taken seriously. I loved the snide comments and laughed out loud through out the book. Even the picture captions were funny. One of my favorite sections was the Spotlight on Birding. As a birder, I totally got it.

A very funny and surprisingly educational book-o-facts on animals. Lentz and Nash have rated a range of animals (by Land, Sky, Water, and "Other"), though their criteria on which creatures get a passing or failing grade seems to be random. Pandas (for their miserable mating habits) and alpacas (for sitting around on their fuzzy behinds while the conquistadors annihilated the Incas) get F's, while the blue whale gets an A+ (for being so bleeding HUGE!)

The book has gotten comparisons to FU Penguin, but I think they're different enough in their irreverent critiques on animals. For starters, The Animal Review is considerably more family friendly. While it lacks FU Penguin's manic energy, there's a lot of knowledge to be found in between show more their jibes, reminding me a lot of Gary Larson for its nerdy humor and genuine fascination with its subjects. show less

As with most humor, whether you like this book or not is a matter of taste. The 'reviews' of animals are varied enough that the joke never becomes completely repetitious, though in most cases the deadlier the animal, the higher the grade. Some metaphors are strained to the breaking point (locusts=teenage girls) which causes a review or two to devolve into non sequiturs. The actual facts that are camouflaged within the reviews keep it interesting, but of course, you would need an outside source to let you know fact from fiction in many cases. The book strongly reminded me of another book, and when I saw another review mentioning _1066 and All That_, I thought that might be it... In fact, I was reminded of Will Cuppy's _How to Attract the show more Wombat_, which covers some of the same ground in the same light style in its short essays. (Overlap includes the koala, the frog, the octopus, the snail, and the ladybug.) show less

Throughout history, humans have been studying their fellow animals and judging them in various ways- these are good to eat, we kill those, this one makes a good pet. But Jacob Lentz and Steve Nash, operators of the Animal Review blog, had another question- are these animals even any good?

The answers are in in this 144-page gem that serves as a report card for some of Earth’s most beloved and reviled species. It mixes hilarity with fact to provide a learning experience you’ll never forget- personally, I think that their analogy between sea cucumbers and people will remain burned into my brain until the day I day. This book will make you reexamine your opinions on every animal it lists- yes, pandas are going extinct, but have you ever show more considered that they might deserve it? And are hippos, which make adorable stuffed animals, really the serial kilers of the animal kingdom?

The Animal Review is especially perfect for reluctant readers who might need a little help in biology, or anyone who is bored on a rainy day. It’s a brief read packed with laughs that also manages to educate- and a surprising number of the jokes turn out to be scientifically accurate. If you’re still not sure, check out the blog link above for a free taste of what these two biology wizards can do. show less