Genius Noses by Lena Anlauf - 5/5

Genius Noses is an adorable children's book that shares a collection of animal noses and all the functions they have. This was such an adorable story, loved by me and children. The illustrations are fun and a great way to show children different types of noses.

Children's Nonfiction - Science
Available for purchase July 2023
Thank you NetGalley and NorthSouth Books Inc. for the eARC.

Genius Noses" is a children's book that highlights the olfactory abilities of various animals. Its narrative is easy to follow, with each page well-organized and presenting a different animal in an engaging manner.

The book uses a multitude of settings, introducing readers to animals from different habitats. Each page provides factual information about the featured animal's unique sense of smell. The book includes fun and imaginative illustrations which make for an engaging visual experience. However, the inclusion of actual animal photos could further enrich the book's educational appeal, as indicated by my child's interest in seeing real-life images.

One of the book's significant strengths is its ability to introduce and explain new vocabulary simply and effectively. "Genius Noses" does a commendable job of introducing young readers to a wide range of terms associated with biology and animal behavior. It goes beyond just introducing these terms—it provides simple, clear explanations that make it easier for young readers to grasp these new concepts.

In summary, "Genius Noses" provides a balance of education and entertainment, maintaining reader interest throughout. Its unique approach to vocabulary introduction makes it a worthwhile addition to a child's reading list.

This was a delightful, fascinating book. It started slow but once I began reading some of the odd and intriguing facts about a these animals around the world, I was hooked.
I especially liked the star nosed mole, what an interesting animal. I also like learning about 'electroreception' and how some animals can perceive electric fields around other living organisms.
Cute cover too!
I absolutely recommend for curious minds.
Thanks you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this book. The opinions are entirely my own.

First of all I did try to read this book using the NG app on my phone but the book's format made it almost impossible with really super small text so I decided to download it instead to the computer in the hopes that it would at least appear a lot easier to read, which fortunately it did although still a bit on the smaller side for font.

Besides that small snafu, though, the book starts off really strong in my opinion with the change to the <i>Table of Contents</i>. Instead of listing sections and the animal entries what Lena Anlauf went with was a renaming of the section to <i>What and Where</i>. This section then goes ahead to break the animals down into sections but in a sense where the flying creatures are listed besides a flying bird and clouds while the ground creatures are on top of the ground and those that can be found under are located neatly under the ground illustration. Furthermore on the right side of this section was drawn a tree for arboreal creatures and a nice water patch for those who prefer more watery biomes for a home. But just as a heads-up to readers who like to be organized this creative cataloging of entries in the book doesn't necessarily mean that the flyers will come first nor the order in which the reader will come upon the listed species.

The book then breaks down into providing a two-page spread for each animal with the left page providing an almost profile-like picture for the animal species in question, its common name and followed by its scientific name(s) for more than one species as well as in a few circumstances a caption highlighting an extra factoid for readers. The opposite page meanwhile is dedicated to providing the reader with more detailed information about the animals such as where it lives, how it uses its nose and other behavioral facts for young readers. Occasionally the reader will also find a handful of animals thrown onto the same spread that may be very similar in family like the pigs or just in appearance like the elephant solendons/elephant shrews/Gambian pouched rats, etc.

Although the illustrations are brightly colored some of the animals aren't portrayed realistically but appear instead to be a bit cartoonish. Although I can see this attracting to very much young readers I wish the animals had been portrayed just a bit better than that, especially the hyena found on the page with the aardvark or the stink badger.

All in all it was quite an interesting read and one that children will most definitely enjoy, especially if they are into learning about animals.

**I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Reading this book I learned how there are so many animals out there with unique noses for myriad uses! Animals of all types (birds, mammals, reptiles & amphibians, etc) are featured, and come from all over the world. Obvious ones like elephants and anteaters are included, but so many I'd never heard of! Any kids interested in animals (like my son!) are going to love this book.

Super cute! It has cute illustrations and tons of facts. It will most definitely satisfy the curious child , especially the awesome ones that like animals

A very interesting book focusing on some animals' olfactive abilities. Its selection of wildlife is fun and out of the beaten tracks for some.
It's packed with information. Very educational and entertaining. I'd only find faults with the format that wasn't ideal. Because of the volume of information on each page, the font size was really small, and that was quite a hindrance to navigate on a screen.

A cute collection of some cute animals with their noses. I liked the variety of colors used to make the book attractive. The kids are definitely going to like it. I would like to give 5 stars to the book. Thanks to Netgalley and the author for providing me with an opportunity to read and review the book.

Published: 09/19/23

Thank you NetGalley and NorthSouth Books Inc., NorthSouth Books for accepting my request to read and review Genius Noses.

Hit! I liked this book. I would have problems reading it aloud. The pronunciations of some animals was above my comfort zone. I see that as a problem -- holding the attention of kids 6-12 without being able to read or sound out the names. I liked that the illustrations were friendly. The descriptions of each animal and their traits could be entertained as trivia.

Overall, I found the book enjoyable and would gift.

"Genius Noses" details really cool facts and information about how the noses of different animals from around the world function. The animals exist in the air, on the ground, underground, in water, or found hanging from trees.

You learn a lot about how each animal uses their unique nose for eating, navigating around, communication, defense, smelling, moving things, and more. I also liked that each animal profile paints a full picture about the animals in addition to their noses. It’s an overall great resource for kids to learn from, to be used in school, or to just read for fun.

I’ve never heard of many of these animals, so there were a lot of new-to-me and very interesting details. The most interesting facts I learned were:

- - (19) “A trained Gambian pouched rat can help diagnose diseases with its superpowered nose. It can also sniff out smugglers and detect landmines in former war zones.”
- - (29) “Elephant trunks are boneless and are made up of more than forty thousand muscles.”

This is a great nonfiction picture book for kids that includes a helpful glossary, index, and further information.

Thank you to NorthSouth Books and NetGalley for the eARC to read in exchange for an honest review!

My, almost, seven year old daughter loves animals so much and she and I both found this book so interesting.!

There were great facts on animals we knew and some we’d never heard of before. The illustrations were very well. It did take two days to get through since there was a lot of information on each animal but my daughter didn’t mind and I think by the age of 8 this would be very quick!

Thank you NorthSouth Books for the gifted digital copy

This little book is super cute and informative. I enjoyed the artwork a lot and my 9 year old in particular thought the information was really interesting. Definitely recommend for kids who enjoy learning about animals and how they are different.

As an adult, I learned so much from this book about various animal species that I didn't even know existed! Specifically focused on animals with unique noses and those with heightened sense of smell, this illustrated book teaches kids (and adults!) about how various animals interact with their environment. Highly recommend for the kid who loves learning about animals and for teachers.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The author takes children on the path to discover some unusual animals and learn some interesting facts about the animals and their noses. Who knew noses could be so interesting. We learn the meaning of the word macrosmatic-animals that use their noses to find their way around and help them recognize others. The echidna uses it's nose to move their eggs from their cloaca to their pouch to incubate until they hatch. The star nosed mole is blind and deaf. It feels around with it's nose and they form star shaped images of their surroundings in their minds. It can smell underwater. If you have a little in your life that really enjoys animals and learning unusual things about them get this book for them. It's a great resource for them and something you can do together. So many lessons you can teach.

This book is so beautiful and so cute, yet it is also educational in a very entertaining way. This is the perfect addition to books that will pique any kid’s interest in biology, animals, and other fun animal facts! My personal favorite is the way facts are presented in this book – nothing is made up or made more entertaining by making something up or exaggerating (seriously, I have no idea why some authors do it, yet I have seen it in several scienc-y kids’ books), all the facts are real and entertaining as they are. Everything is presented in easy-to-understand manner too.
And then there are drawings! The drawings are the absolute cutest! Cute and adorable, yet very realistic.

A smart colorful entertaining educational compendium for curious minds. Lena Anlauf found a winner when she decided to make her subject for her next book animal noses And all the things they do besides smell. They use them as tools warning systems and much much more they can be used underwater underground and under threat. Nature is so interesting and when reading books about nature the one thing that keeps running through my mind always is that truth is stranger than fiction and then the book Genius Noses that is certainly the case. I think the author has found the winner with these colorful pictures descriptive paragraphs and interesting animals. I truly enjoyed this book and it always surprises me how much I enjoy non-fiction books this one included. I found it so interesting and so worth reading to my daughter and they even gave them a few giggles. I received this book from NetGalley but I’m leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This is such a cute book. Who knew there were so many different animals with so many different size noses. I’m sure we are all familiar with Elephants and anteaters, but who knew about the Desman, the Echidna, the Proboscis monkey or the different noses on bats.
Short quick picture book about all the differently nosed animals out there, along with little facts about what they do with said noses. Also, at the end of the book, we get info on insects and fishes, and non-land animals.


The great thing about these sort of non-fiction books is that it opens kids up to other ideas,and wanting to get more information on the various animals. And it is a lot of fun to read through.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This books comes out the 19th of September 2023 from NorthSouth Books.

This was super fun! The illustrations were really fun, with some exaggerated features to grab your attention. There were lots of interesting facts about all these different animals and their unique and special noses! This would be a great book to have in a classroom or to use for a school project.

Cute and concise explanations and pretty and light illustrations. Really good for children and adults alike to learn or relearn about the natural world. Thank you so much for sending me this e-ARC. Hope there will be more books like this in the future.

This nonfiction picture book introduces a variety of animals from around the world who have unusual, unique, and powerful noses. The illustrations are cute, but because they are cartoonish, I would have preferred it if this book had also included actual photographs of the animals. Also, there is too much text in too many places, in a fairly small font that is hard to read. This will appeal to the target audience, but it could have been better-executed, and I would encourage people who are interested in this to pursue a hard copy instead of an ebook because of the font size.