We’ve been sent another great book to review by Macmillan – Poo! What is that Smell, written by Glenn Murphy and illustrated by Laura Murphy. In fact, I’ll be honest, we were sent it a little while ago. We started reading it, then lost it, then found it just as I was starting to panic and think I would have to get on and buy myself another copy. Anyway, after that false start we are loving it. The title is perfect for catching children’s attention, and the book doesn’t disappoint. It is full of really detailed Scientific information, but very readable and entertaining.
The book has a chapter on each of the five senses, and so far we have been reading the first chapter which is about Sight. I asked the children to recall one fact that they had found interesting from the chapter and draw a picture. Owl and Monkey both chose to illustrate the reason why zebras have black-and-white stripes. “It’s so they can hide among each other. A herd of stripey zebras presents a confusing optical illusion to lions and hyenas. The stripes disguise the outline of each animal in the herd, making it hard to tell where one zebra ends and another one begins, or which way they might be facing. This makes it especially difficult for their predators to select a target, let alone predict which way they might run once the chase begins.”
Don’t ask me why there are rabbits flying overhead, and animals holding up umbrellas to protect themselves from their droppings. All I can say is that the boys found it very amusing, and I hope it helps them to remember this Science fact!
Rabbit was interested in the fact that some animals can see different colours, or types of light, because they have more types of cone cells in their eyes. “Many birds, for example, can see ultraviolet (UV) light. This lets them see patterns of light on flowers, trees and grassy hillsides that are invisible to humans. Snakes, meanwhile, have extra cone cells that can detect invisible, infrared (IR) light given off by warm objects. With this special, snakey , super-vision, a pit viper can pick out the warm body of a quivering mouse in complete darkness. Good news for the snake; bad news for mousey…”
I am really enjoying reading this book to the children, and I’m learning a lot too!
We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.