Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons

by Sara Levine, T.S Spookytooth (Illustrator)

Overview

What would you be if your finger bones grew so long that they reached your feet? You'd be a bat! What if you had no leg bones but kept your arm bones? You'd be a whale, a dolphin, or a porpoise!

This entertaining picture book will keep readers guessing as they learn about how our skeletons are like―and unlike―those of other animals.

How are you similar to animals? How are you different? These entertaining picture books from educator and veterinarian Sara Levine and illustrator T.S Spookytooth explore comparative anatomy and give readers the chance to find out how their skeletons, teeth, and eyes match up with a wide variety of animals from the past and present. Packed with surprising animal facts that will delight readers of all ages!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761384649
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2013
Series:	Animal by Animal Series
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	525,839
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	580L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 9 Years

About the Author

Sara Levine is an author, educator, and veterinarian. Her science books for children include the Animal by Animal series, Germs Up Close, and A Peek at Beaks: Tools Birds Use. Her books have received a number of awards including AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize, Utah Beehive Book Award, Cook Prize finalist, Monarch Award master list, and Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year.

T.S Spookytooth has been illustrating for many years. Throughout these years of brandishing a paintbrush, he has explored the diverse fields of children’s picture books; magazine and newspaper illustrations; and advertising, packaging, and illustrating for websites.

When not working on illustration commissions, he likes to find time to work on many of his own personal projects. He keeps these projects locked in a suitcase but sometimes he forgets where he left the key. An ideal day for Mr. Spookytooth is to ponder and then to draw these ponderings. Some food is fitted in along the way followed by more ponderings and the occasional readjustment of his bow tie, but ponderings are the main order of the day.

He also lives in a house with Mrs. Spookytooth and thankfully she is fond of a ponder as well . . . and is good at finding lost keys.

Editorial Reviews

"I've been longing for another kind of picture book: one that appeals to young children's wildest imagination in service of real evolutionary thinking....Bone by Bone, by veterinarian and professor Sara Levine, fills the niche to near perfection." —Slate

From the Publisher

09/01/2013
K-Gr 2—Levine takes a unique approach to comparative anatomy. The purpose of the book is to illustrate differences between human and animal bone structures. Each page presents a question, e.g., "What kind of animal would you be if your finger bones grew so long that they reached your feet?" The answer is revealed with the turn of the page ("A bat!"). The bright, stylized, color illustrations match each question, portraying cartoon children with distorted anatomy, such as a girl with a neck like a giraffe's, or a snake with a human head. Some may find the gloppy piles of cartoon children with no bones unappetizing, while others may find the peculiar images amusing. Many of the riddlelike questions will play well in a storytime setting, allowing readers to ask a question and permitting children to imagine and participate in the answer. Bone by Bone does not have the detailed informational content or illustrative depth of Steve Parker's Skeleton (DK, 1988), but it does succeed in presenting basic structural differences among animals. This unusual book is interactive and thought-provoking, if a little gross in certain sections.—Jeffrey Meyer, Mount Pleasant Public Library, IA

School Library Journal

2013-09-01
An intriguing combination of questions, answers and playful illustrations presents the comparative anatomy of animals, based on their bones, in an original way, with mixed results. What if you had no bones at all? What would you look like with bones at the end of your spine? What if your hand bones reached your feet? What animal would you look like? The author, a biologist and veterinarian, has taught children's environmental-education classes as well as college students. Her "what if" questions are right on target for young learners, connecting them to the subject and extending their imaginations. She covers the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates and some skeletal particulars, but this is more a collection of intriguing points than an organized introduction. Unfortunately, the presentation gets in the way of the information. Questions and explanations appear in both a chunky letterpress and hand-lettered–like sans-serif style; answers are in uppercase; this busy typography won't help fledgling readers. Spookytooth's illustrations use a diverse group of children to demonstrate major points. These pictures add humor, and some are instructive as well, though others are confusing. Side-by-side human and animal skeletons have major parts labeled; later X-ray views are less meaningful. For organized information, Steve Jenkins' Bones: Skeletons and How They Work (2010) is a better choice. Amusing enough, but there is little intellectual meat on these bones. (more about bones and vertebrates, glossary, further reading) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews