A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures

AUTHOR

Sami Bayly is a natural history illustrator based in Newcastle. She loves all things, weird and wonderful. She finds the beauty and importance of all animals regardless of their appearance, and hopes to share her appreciation with others.

Sami’s first book, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals, won the Children’s Indie Book of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the CBCA Eve Pownall Award, the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children, and the Australian Book Design Awards. It was longlisted for the ABA Booksellers’ Choice 2020 Book of the Year Awards.

SYNOPSIS

Weird and wonderfully strange creatures are presented on a double page spread per subject. Utilizing an infographic style, the page layout includes a one-page description and a page covering the particulars of each creature; such as: where they live, what they eat, their conservation status and fun facts.

The key illustrations are large, colorful and life-like. In addition, there are pen and ink sketches depicting the creature in focus from different perspectives. There are also infographics depicting an average sized man next to each creature to allow the viewer to establish scale. All of these descriptive annotations are displayed on a velum colored background.

There are 61 examples of curious creatures continued within the 128 pages. What follows are a few examples of the fascinating animals, fish, birds and invertebrates that you can find in Bayly’s enchanting work:

RETICULATED STARGAZER – Dactyloscopus Foraminosus Blanchardi

This diminutive fish is literally nightmare fuel. The Reticulated Stargazer projects a terrifying countenance enhanced by the full page color image. With large eyes protruding from the top if its head as it languishes half-buried in sand and a mouth full of sharp dirty teeth the thought of an encounter with this mini monster is sobering. At only 3 inches long it blends skillfully in to the environment. This is quite alarming when you realize that this tiny terror can deliver a shock of 50 volts from between its eyes or inject you with venom from two spines on their back. If all this were not disgusting enough the Reticulated Stargazer has the propensity to burp back the scales of it’s last meal.

Consider for a moment that these were the fun facts about this fish.

SARCASTIC FRINGEHEAD – Neoclinus Blanchardi

Looking like an off-world monster with a disarticulated hinged jaw, the Sarcastic Fringehead is a vision from a horror movie. So violent it attacks fishermen who as a result avoid them like the plague. They enjoy the luxury of having few natural threats, and it is thought that this is partially the reason for their aggression. Fortunately, these omnivores are deep sea fish who consume squid, plankton, crustaceans, and small fish. Their habitat is off the Coast of California and Mexico 195 feet down in the depths.

TARDIGRADE – Tardigrada

Tardigrade are better known as the Water Bear. They are invertebrates that live three months to two and a half years. However, if they become dormant, they can last as long aa thirty years in stasis. Some are hermaphroditic; also known as intersex, while others can clone themselves. Tardigrade’s can survive in temperature extremes as well as being capable of cryptobiosis. They are cannibalistic and can also use tubes to suck juices from moss, algae, and bacteria. They are survivors and have been around for over 500 million years.

These are just a few of the 61 other animals depicted. You might find: The Aye-Aye, the Hairless Chinese Crested Dog, The Blob Fish, The Purple Pig-Nosed Frog or the Naked Mole Rat equally as fascinating as I did.,

CONCLUSION

A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures is a fascinating, entertaining and fun journey through the world of strange, exotic and captivating animals. It is packed full of interesting knowledge about the private lives of the most bizarre wildlife. A perfect excursion for children wanting to discover the fringe world of fantastic and unique critters.

In my opinion children would enjoy this publication. It is containing scientifically based information set in easy digestible chunks for young, hungry minds. I feel assured that A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures would stimulate and entertain but more importantly that it will encourage further research. When learning is fun children are driven to want to learn more and this is the true strength of Bayly’s scintillating work. It is simply a joy to the eye and the mind equally.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Sami Bayly, NetGalley and The Experiment for affording me the opportunity to review A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures.

Upper elementary students will be sure to love learning about all the strange, unique animals that are highlighted in Sami Bayly's anthology, A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures.

Animals from all over are highlighted in this nonfiction book. Each animal gets a two-page spread providing detailed background on the animal, where it lives, and how it survives in nature. On top of that, every page is beautifully illustrated with drawings that are so detailed the seem as if they could be photographs.

I would recommend this book for upper elementary/middle-level readers. It is jammed pack full of informational facts about each animal. In addition, there is some really challenging vocabulary that may be a bit too tough for younger elementary students.

Honestly one of the coolest/weirdest books I've come across, A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures is nothing but fun (and information of course). Beautifully illustrated and laid out, it was fun to learn of odd animals with 'Fun Facts, Where They Live, Close Relations, What They Eat, and Conservation Status'. I'm not surprised one bit to realize I hadn't heard of many of these animals (and still kinda doubt they exist but I did do some research because. Mind. Blown.) and I think this book would make a great gift for that special person in your life. Truly. I can think of a couple of family members ('what to get when they have everything') that would get a kick out of this book . I'll be referencing this for quite some time and can only thank the author for such an odd and fun read. #ACuriousCollectionofPeculiarCreatures #NetGalley

My kids loved this book! My 6 year old is animal obsessed and loves things like the Wild Kratts, Ranger Rick, and Planet Earth. Even though she is an animal "expert," there were creatures in here she had never seen. The illustrations are beautiful, and there's plenty of facts to be educational. I will be buying this in print for my kids to add to their library.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. An interesting book about peculiar animals, what they eat, where they live, and how you can help them. Kids will love this.

I love books like this. I like learning about animals in general, but learning about ones that you don't know about is always a lot of fun and it's incredibly descriptive and informative with beautiful illustrations.

I absolutely loved this gorgeously illustrated and fascinating book that teaches us about animals that might not be cute and cuddly on the outside but are fascinating and lovable on the inside. Highly recommended for school and classroom libraries as well as for any animal-loving reader of any age.

A wonderfully delightful addition to the canon of weird animal books! Each animal has a beautifully illustrated image along with general information, where they live, what they eat, conservation status, and fun facts. I can't wait to add this to my large format nonfiction collection!

This is a great collection of crazy critters from around the world! Packed full of fascinating information on creatures such as hellbender salamanders, fringe head fish, goblin sharks and tardigrades, this encyclopedia is perfect for any animal lover.