Friday, February 22, 2013

Cabin Fever Cure- Cool Animal Names



Cool Animal Names
By Dawn Cusick
80 pages; ages 8 and up
Imagine Publishing, 2011
 
You’ve probably heard of catfish and zebrafish, but have you hears about rabbitfish and lizardfish? What about catbirds and rat owls, or giraffe beetles and goat moths? And peacock frog? How do animals get these crazy names, anyhow?

That’s what Dawn Cusick wondered when she started collecting weird animal names. She’d be reading along and up would pop an interesting name: porcupinefish, or tiger moth for example. So she’d scribble the name on a slip of paper and toss it in a file. That file grew, and grew, and after 20 years she knew she’d have to do something with all those names – like make a book.

There are more than 250 animal names in this book – including lions (tamarins) and tigers (salamanders) and bears (cat bears), oh my! There are parrot snakes, which don’t talk, and snake-birds that do. It’s a fun romp through pages filled with photos and stories about how the animals got their names.

Check out other cool science resources at STEM Friday. Review copy from publisher.

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