The Beginner's Guide to Animal Autopsy

"To find out how a car works, we take it apart and study its insides... To find out how an animal works, we take it...er, no we don't. We look in this book!" So begins Steve Parker's irreverent and informative guide to animal anatomy. While no animals were harmed in the making, and no scalpels are required, the book provides an inside look at animals you're unlikely to find on the dissecting table. For instance, the book compares a hippo with a mosquito and shows that despite their drastic exterior differences, they share many organs with similar purposes. The guide then goes through "Slithery-Slimies" (earthworm, coral and jellyfish, starfish, squid, lobster); Bugs (dragonfly, beetle, moth, bee, scorpion, centipede); "Fins and Scales" (shark, salmon, electric eel, frog, turtle, crocodile, chameleon, python); Birds (ostrich, penguin, swallow, owl), and Mammals (whale, kangaroo, bat, elephant, tiger, monkey). Each animal is given a large, fact-filled page. The Beginners Guide is crammed with blocks of information, so much so that it can be hard to know where to look next. Each page is generously and colorfully illustrated, and each chapter begins with a mechanical look at animals (in keeping with the car analogy). One thing Animal Autopsy lacks, though, is information about autopsies. This is a great primer of comparative *anatomy*, but readers thirsting for the what's and how's of dissecting should look elsewhere. The other omission is in definitions; readers might be frustrated at what's not included in the one-page glossary. The Beginner's Guide to Animal Autopsy is a great resource for kids wanting to know more about zoology.