Animals Brag About Their Bottoms

Maki Saito’s extraordinarily stunning book about animal bottoms may be seen as a little bit quirky as it incorporates an absurdity that children often enjoy, an absurdity found somewhere between silly bathroom and body humour. Children can delight in and giggle over the lovely illustrations and be comfortable with the gentle appreciation of beautiful bottoms.

With her illustrations, Saito examines the diversity of the animal kingdom which is rich with wonderfully wild creatures exhibiting their fascinating features, in particular, their lovely bottoms. Readers are introduced to a variety of animals that compare and show off their bottoms with much pride and self-confidence. Readers visit with a bunny whose bottom is cute and round and work up to a rhino and an elephant with sizable bottoms (I can personally relate to these two creatures). Readers learn about some unusual animals, such as the Malayan tapir, a Japanese macaque and a mandrill and a selection of other wonderful creatures whose bottoms range from fluffy to spikey, heart-shaped and, not to mention, stylish.

The vivid illustrations which tell the story are created through the use of paper collage, stenciled paintings, and a traditional Japanese dyeing technique. The cover of the book is textured and offers an added feature where children can imagine that these bottoms are all dressed in a different type of covering, some furry and soft, and some tough and scratchy perhaps.

When I was reading through this book, I considered Heather Tekavec’s Different? Same! (Kids Can Press, 2017). In her book, Tekavec considers both the differences and similarities of creatures within the animal kingdom. This illustrates to me how everybody and everything in the natural world is made up of different bits and pieces – some are unique to ourselves while other features are shared by all creatures – such as bottoms for example. Although we are all different, we each have something that makes us special and unique, and it’s the things that we have in common that help us to understand each other and to be open to learning about diversity and acceptance.

Animals Brag About Their Bottoms story encourages confidence, self-awareness, and feeling good about yourself.