Acting Wild: How We Behave Like Birds, Bugs, and Beasts

If you want to make natural history enticing and entertaining as well as instructive, one clever way is to use a wisecracking ant as narrator for a nonfiction book about animals. “Hey human! How goes it? What’s wrong? Never talked to an ant before?” This character’s distinct voice and comic upbeat delivery will attract kids (and curious adults as well) and keep them reading. The lively tone is maintained throughout the 11 examples of how humans (part of the animal kingdom, after all) and animals share many behaviors. The book winds up with a reminder to appreciate how we are all one big animal family and an invitation to think of other ways people and animals behave alike. A “Glossary” and “Suggested Reading” are included.

Each topic, (farming, laughter, tool use, play, cooperation and travel among others) supports the comparison with three examples of animal species that act as humans do. Take tools, for instance: chimps poke twigs into termite mounds to collect the food; bottlenose dolphins use a bit of sponge to cushion their snout when digging into the seafloor to dislodge fish; sea otters crack clam shells using rocks. Extensive and recent research is evident as expert studies are cited: e.g. a thirty year study shows how prairie dogs communicate different information with specific barks, chirps, squeaks and squeals. The small factual chunks of text are easy to read, with just enough detail to arouse curiosity. The choices of animal species will be mostly familiar —elephants, beavers, woodpeckers, dogs, bees—while a few less well known examples (yeti crabs, macaque monkeys) offer new learning. The author also suggests additional species to investigate.

Partnered with the fascinating facts, animated cartoon illustrations are generous in size and bold in color to make each double page spread engaging. Hilarious facial expressions and body language elicit emotional responses to make each selection memorable. The narrator ant appears on every page to keep the reader moving page to page, with constant lighthearted reminders about the behavioral similarities among animals.

Acting Wild: How We Behave Like Birds, Bugs, and Beasts, a fun, well-designed book, sets the tone for understanding our place in the natural world, not as somehow apart with no need to concern ourselves with other species, but as a distant relation sharing the planet.