Critter Chat: What if Animals Used Social Media?

by Rosemary Mosco

Overview

If animals could speak (and text and post selfies, and review items on Amazon), what would they say? Find out in this hilarious collection of imagined digital encounters, based on real animal intel and facts.


Get in on the conversation! In Critter Chat, every habitat has a group chat. In the African savanna, a lion (screenname: Just_Lion_Around) declares his territory with a text-based ROAR! Meanwhile, zebra and cheetah send eyeroll emojis. In the North American suburbs, a carpet beetle texts the family dog, reassuring him that his humans will return—eventually.


Among surprising, laugh-out-loud conversations like these, you’ll find tons of parody social media posts from all your favorites in the animal kingdom, including Instagram-style inspirational posts and silly Yelp reviews. An adorable dumbo octopus posts a selfie (#FeelingCute). And a frustrated narwhal reviews an extra-long toothbrush. (It’s still too short—of course!)


Inside, there are also plenty of fascinating nonfiction features that give readers the scoop on actual animal communication (Did you know that white rhinos communicate with poop? It's true!), and real-life animal influencers who are making waves online and in our hearts. In a conveniently portable size, this handy little treasure can be carried anywhere, for a good laugh anytime!


It's the perfect book for reluctant readers, animal lovers, and yucksters young and old.
For more fun and fact-filled animal books from National Geographic Kids, don’t miss out on Weird But True! Animals, Just Joking: Funny Animals, and Nerdlet: Animals!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426371707
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	1,074,581
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 6.50(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

ROSEMARY MOSCO is a science writer and cartoonist. She co-wrote the New York Times best-selling Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid, created Birding Is My Favorite Video Game (a 2019 ALA Great Graphic Novel for Teens), and wrote Solar System: Our Place in Space. Her Bird and Moon nature comics were the subject of an award-winning exhibit at Cornell’s Museum of the Earth. Her favorite animal is the frosted flatwoods salamander.

Editorial Reviews

2022-04-27
What if animals used social media? This title speculates on this question, offering readers punny posts, fun facts, and abundant animal antics!

Mosco has fashioned a tapestry of interesting tidbits and jokes about (and supposedly by) the critters themselves. The pages are a riot of color, with high-resolution photos of various creatures and funny profiles that include facts as well as mock messages from them. The male house mouse (with a microphone in his tiny paws) has posted a profile on a dating app, while the upside-down jellyfish of the Caribbean offers an explanation of its topsy-turvy life in a post on Dolphinstagram. There are several lively, lengthy text threads (hence the book’s title), like the one among the grizzly bear, gray wolf, elk, and American bison who commiserate about unexpected and unwelcome human visitors. Every animal has its own unique, illustrated story. For example, the zebra in Kenya is plagued by ticks; welcome relief comes from a flock of yellow-billed oxpeckers that land on its back and devour the pesky pests. A post with the hashtag #BFFS shows a banded mongoose who will helpfully eat bothersome ticks and bugs perched atop the back of a sleeping warthog. A male orchid bee gives Wild Thing Cologne only two stars on Llamazon, explaining that his own scent created from harvested plant chemicals works much better. This comprehensive and colorful compendium will delight young browsers.

A feast for the eye, the inquisitive young mind, and the funny bone. (index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews