Flying Frogs and Walking Fish: Leaping Lemurs, Tumbling Toads, Jet-Propelled Jellyfish, and More Surprising Ways That Animals Move

by Steve Jenkins, Steve Jenkins (Illustrator), Robin Page

Overview

A red-lipped batfish waddles across the sea floor on its fins, searching for small sea creatures to eat. Other animals may fly or glide, or jet-propel themselves to get around. These creatures come equipped with legs, wings, or tentacles, and they often move from place to place in surprising ways. In the latest eye-catching escape into the kingdom of Animalia, Caldecott Honor-winning team Jenkins and Page show how animals roll, fly, walk, leap, climb, swim and even flip! This fascinating and fun illustrated nonfiction melds science, art, biology, and the environment together in a detailed and well-researched book about how animals move in our world today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544630901
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,091,632
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	900L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Steve Jenkins wrote and illustrated many nonfiction picture books for young readers, including the Caldecott Honor Book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? His books have been called stunning, eye-popping, inventive, gorgeous, masterful, extraordinary, playful, irresistible, compelling, engaging, accessible, glorious, and informative.

Steve Jenkins wrote and illustrated many nonfiction picture books for young readers, including the Caldecott Honor Book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? His books have been called stunning, eye-popping, inventive, gorgeous, masterful, extraordinary, playful, irresistible, compelling, engaging, accessible, glorious, and informative.

Robin Page has worked on numerous bestselling and award-winning titles with her husband and collaborator, Steve Jenkins, including Caldecott Honor Book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/21/2016
In another of their expert examinations of biodiversity, frequent husband-and-wife collaborators Jenkins and Page explore the ways nearly 50 creatures move on land, in the sea, and underwater. Pages highlighting the unexpected movements of single animals (an octopus walking across the sea floor, a swimming elephant) alternate with ones looking at how other animals approach the same methods (a red kangaroo “uses its tail as a fifth leg,” while the slow-on-land sloth “is right at home in the water”). As usual, Jenkins’s collages capture the animals’ distinctive characteristics with precision and attention to detail, while a closing spread offers notable tidbits about the animals within. Ages 4–7. (May)

Publishers Weekly

* "As usual, Jenkins’s collages capture the animals’ distinctive characteristics with precision and attention to detail, while a closing spread offers notable tidbits about the animals within." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review * "This fine overview is destined to be a popular addition to any science collection." —School Library Journal, STARRED review "...the featured animals are well chosen for diversity and interest, and the locomotion methods are startling and intriguing. This is therefore a useful addition to the ever-expanding Jenkins/Page nature study shelves." —Bulletin "...this spectacular arrangement of creatures is delicately rendered in Jenkins’ signature, eye-catching collage style. Closing with a list of categories and its accompanying critters, [Flying Frogs and Walking Fish] is highly educational and a treat to behold. —Booklist —

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2016
K-Gr 3—Every living creature requires a way to travel from one place to another, as showcased in this informative exploration of animal mobility. Jenkins and Page highlight a variety of animals, both familiar (frogs, dogs, and elephants) and unusual (cormorants, sugar gliders, and mudskippers). The engaging narrative is organized by type of locomotion, such as walking, leaping, swimming, climbing, and flying. Two spreads comprise each section. In the first spread, the authors introduce a particular type of movement by explaining why and how a specific animal moves in a unique or unexpected way. The next spread expands upon the concept with further details about other animals. For example, the leaping lizard is followed by a jumping spider, a penguin that rockets from the water, a bounding springbok, and a ring-tailed lemur that vaults from tree to tree. Set against white space, the collage illustrations portray the animals in a subdued palette of earth tones that enhances the natural representation of each creature. They jump, slither, and float across the pages, and the layout of the accompanying text further emphasizes the sense of movement. Back matter provides additional information. VERDICT This fine overview is destined to be a popular addition to any science collection.—Linda L. Walkins, Saint Joseph Preparatory High School, Boston

School Library Journal

2016-02-17
Tackling the hows and whys of six kinds of animal movement, Jenkins and Page present 46 creatures in paper collages against crisp white backgrounds. The format is clean and simple. A double-page spread introduces a type of movement and depicts a single animal. A cogent paragraph provides reasons for the adaptation. A common octopus is shown walking on the seafloor on two of its eight legs. Walking "doesn't take a lot of energy, and the slow pace makes it easy to watch for food or danger." The next spread presents six walkers—some of them surprising. The red-lipped batfish and sea pig also walk on the seafloor. A fishing spider can walk on water's surface, and a red kangaroo uses its tail as "a fifth leg." The narrative section about "flying" animals might more properly have been termed "gliding." The text does distinguish between "true fliers" and "gliders"—animals that "sail through the air, but only for a limited distance." However, only one of the section's seven animals (the rhinoceros beetle) is capable of true flight, and common names like "flying snake," "flying frog," and "flying fish" further muddy the concept. Layered papers—cut, torn, and precisely chosen for color and texture—form creatures and occasional bits of habitat. Good for browsing—with the potential for launching readers into further investigation. (glossary, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews