The World's Best Noses, Ears, and Eyes

Gr 1–3—Though this picture book seems aimed at the preschool set based on the cartoonlike illustrations (the endpapers are a delightful montage of eyes, ears, and noses), the copious amount of text per page is more appropriate for elementary school students. Rundgren compares the qualities of the eyes, ears, and noses of several animals (with each species explaining why it thinks it possesses the best ones), at times acknowledging that judging which animal has best sense depends upon its particular needs. Unfortunately, the book has a number of flaws: text and illustrations anthropomorphize the animals, and some of the information is incorrect. The book states that a generic male moth can smell a female from a mile away, when, in fact, males of a number of species of moths can detect females from as far away as seven miles. The claim that sharks can detect a few drops of blood in a large body of water is exaggerated. When it comes to eyes, the colossal, or giant, squid has the largest eyes, not, as the book states, the octopus; as for seeing in the dark, owls and tarsiers have better eyesight than cats, and dragonflies have better compound eyes than houseflies. While this offering is attractive, its numerous flaws make it too problematic for general purchase.—Nancy Silverrod, San Francisco Public Library