by Kevin McCloskey (Author)
What’s the scoop behind all the mucus?
Did you know snails build roads like engineers and go undercover in camouflage like top secret spies? Did you know they can be smaller than a seed or bigger than a grown-up’s hand?
Cartoonist Kevin McCloskey is back with his trademark mixture of real-life science, lovely art, and infectious hilarity for the slimiest book in his acclaimed Giggle and Learn series, praised by the New York Times as “a winning combination of facts and gross-out fun.”
WorldCat is the world's largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.
K-Gr 1--With hip and fun graphics, just enough "ick" factor, and plenty of facts, this title offers beginning readers a great deal of information about snails and slugs. McCloskey opens with a familiar idea--snails are slow--but springboards from that to unexpected tidbits such as how fast or slow snails move compared to other animals, why a lack of speed can be an advantage, and lots and lots about mucus. The author/illustrator quickly touches upon reproduction ("Snails shoot arrows at each other before they make babies") and even finds space to look at the creatures as favorites in the drawing habits of monks of old--a segue into a spread devoted to how to draw a snail. VERDICT What a delight! Kindergartners will need some help with this one but will enjoy it, while first graders will savor the grossness on their own.--Henrietta Verma, Credo Reference, Jackson Heights, NY
Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.The fourth title in McCloskey's Giggle and Learn series of leveled reader comics celebrates the notoriously poky mollusk. In distinctively quirky graphics, McCloskey shows snails ambling along on mucus trails and handily communicating via dialogue balloons. Three children learn about snails with readers, expressing enthusiasm and occasional revulsion in response. "Snails make a lot of mucus. With mucus, they can travel on any surface," McCloskey writes. A chestnut-colored snail flagrantly demonstrates this point: "I can climb over a knife and not get hurt!" Readers will also learn that "every snail is both male and female" and "a snail's eyes are weak, but it uses its lower tentacles to feel and smell." McCloskey's series continues to deliver an offbeat blend of science, humor, and a dynamic interplay between words and pictures. Ages 4-8. (May)
Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.