Pistes d'exploration

Découvrir le visuel et s’en inspirer

Analyze the structure of the text. Observe the layout of the illustrations, and text in each double two-page spread (each animal pair is spread-out over four pages.) Evaluate the authors use of dialogue, humour, speech bubbles and sidebars “friendly facts” to convey information. Use these techniques in your own written and multimedia productions.

S'informer

Read aloud the introduction on pages 4-7 which introduces the concept of symbiotic relationships between animals. Invite groups of 3 of students to select an animal pair that speaks to them from the table of contents. Upon reading the section, each group of students should be able to categorize their animal-pair according to the type of symbiotic animal relationship they display mutualism, commensalism or parasitism. Students can then share their conclusion with the class by validating their choice based on facts from the text.

Découvrir les richesses du texte

Read aloud the conclusion on pages 154-155. Understand how it broadens the topic to animal conservation worldwide. Project pages 156-157 on the interactive white board using a document camera, invite the whole class to look at the details in the illustration and name as many animals and the type of symbiotic relationships displayed as they can. Use the index and the glossary to fact check their hypotheses.

Animalium

Birds From Head to Tail

Ocean Animals From Head to Tail

Eat Your Rocks, Croc! Dr. Glider’s Advice for Troubled Animals

Mots-clés

Humour , Non-fiction , animal adaptations , animal behaviour , animals , dialogue , layout , mutuality , relationships , structures , symbiosis

Commentaire descriptif

An abundance of symbiotic interspecies relationships are recounted in this humorous natural science picture book. Whimsical, full-colour spreads propose exaggerated, illustrative scenarios, followed by the true behaviours of each animal paring. A variety of approaches are used to present the marvels of mutualism (and commensalism and parasitism), such as speech bubbles (“In return for this, we keep the baboon’s thirst quenched by digging water holes with our mighty tusks!”), imaginary scenarios (“I know you are a strict vegetarian so the fly pie is for me”) and sidebars: “FIENDISH FACTS: Drongos earn the trust of a meerkat mob by alerting them when danger (such as a hawk) is nearby. But they break their trust by alerting them when there is NO danger around and steal their food as the meerkats run for cover.” Illustrations combine realism with a cartoon-like sensibility to create expressive characters in habitat settings. One pretty spread in green hues is divided by the meandering branches of a small bush. A hummingbird, with a glinting eye and flapping wings (“everyone just loves me”), hovers over her eggs, which are nestled in a tiny, sticky nest made from spider web—serving also to catch snacks. At page bottom, a gray spider dangles from the remains of her home and hunting ground. (“Ok, but you have hurt me, hummingbird. You stole my web!” “What? Sorry I can’t hear you over the sound of my beautiful wings.”) Another spread features the sinuous forms and similar colour-patterns of two snakes—one with deadly venom, and the copycat who has none: “Red touches yellow, could kill a fellow,” “Red touches black, friend to Jack.” While the book’s introduction discusses scientific terms describing these symbiotic relationships, the closing spread (“There is SO much DRAMA going on behind the scenes!”) offers a larger perspective (“No matter what types of relationships we share, these connections are important to the health of the Earth’s ecosystems”) and an encouraging call to readers: “Humans are really just scratching the surface of how different species interact . . . Keep your eyes peeled and you might just discover some unlikely animal relationships on your own.” A wordless final image shows many of the animal parings gathered in a single landscape setting. The octopus hugs the grouper fish; the ostrich perches on the zebra’s rump; the butterfly hovers above the caiman’s long snout, and more. At front, a detailed table of contents allows for easy access to each relationship, while a glossary completes this fun and fascinating resource.