Hmmm... You see what this book is trying to do from the outset, and it carries that through on the one same note, rightly or wrongly. It's designed to be a nature book, where we meet some superlative animals, only for every page to have hand-scrawled interjections, and derogatory comments about each critter as new captions to every illustration here. All the subjects also suffer a made-up Latin name that aims to be more truthful than the real one. But I was forced to wonder if it judged its target audience well enough. Take just the second subject, the quokka. If you're aiming to get liked by readers still young enough to be fascinated about the animal's habit of regurgitating its food for a second chew, why deign to call it a "pseudo-roo"? Is that, or the "mini macropod" alternative from the scientific voice, primary school book stuff?

Berating a snake because it has "no arms. Or legs" certainly is, but it's quite tiresome in the finish. I'm quite sure we're supposed to want the science voice with its staid, firm font to 'win' here, and to get our attention. But the poor sense of humour of the scrawl, far beyond the potential copycat behaviour it might inspire, didn't win a friend in my mind. What could have been a decent look at some regular (and most irregular) animals, with a good bit of biology and a fine eye for trivia, didn't need the failed comedy to deliver its lessons.

"The World’s Most Pointless Animals is a witty, quirky, colorfully-illustrated book featuring fascinating facts about some very silly animals…who we find are perhaps not so pointless after all."

With beautifully odd illustrations of quite peculiar animals, this book goes through different pointless aspects of each. All different with unique aspects, this book highlights the fact that there is a place for everyone in the world.