How to Chat Chicken, Gossip Gorilla, Babble Bee, Gab Gecko, and Talk in 66 Other Animal Languages

by Nick Crumpton, Adrienne Barman (Illustrator)

It’s time to walk on the wild side and talk with the animals. This book will teach you not just how to chat chicken but also gossip with gorillas, mumble with meerkats, and warble with whales. You’ll be ready for any adventure into the animal kingdom. It’s a noisy world out there. Almost eight billion people are saying hello, asking for directions, buying food, singing lullabies, paying compliments, and all in their own languages--of which there are six or seven thousand! And that’s just humans… animals have millions of languages! Insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians are all talking to each other too, with grunts, squeaks, and tweets, as part of the natural orchestra that is Life on Earth. Some of those noises can sound scary, others sweet… wouldn’t it be nice to be able to understand what they were all trying to say? Author Dr Nick Crumpton acts as our translator and guide through the animal kingdom in this fun, and funny, book. He teaches us what our pet dog’s bark means and how an orangutan says “Hello!” ( Whuuu-whuuu-whuuu just in case you ever need it!). Each sound has been researched using recordings and information from scientists in the field. This book will teach you not just how to chat chicken but also gossip with gorillas, mumble with meerkats, and warble with whales. You’ll be ready for any adventure into the animal kingdom.

Genres: Animals, Middle Grade, Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2023

About the author

Nick Crumpton is a zoologist and writer based in London. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and has researched the inner workings of the mammalian organs of hearing and balance, what the very earliest mammals that lived in the age of the dinosaurs liked to eat, and what sub-fossils of new species from Indonesia can tell us about evolution.

Reviews

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an effort to be transparent, I must confess that definition and classification is my favorite rhetorical mode, so I enjoy books that adopt that framework. Nick Crumpton writes a book illustrated by Adrienne Barman that introduces young readers to the types of sounds and vibrations that 60 plus animals and insects produce.

The book is organized into these sections:

Prattling with Primates (monkeys, apes, etc.)
Noisy Neighbors (farm animals)
Babbling Bugs (bees, cicadas, etc.)
Commotion in the Ocean (dolphins, seals, etc.)
Wild Words (hippos, meerkats, geckos, etc.)
Wild on the wing (crows, bats, chickadees, etc.)

There are over 60 very short chapters, but not every one is dedicated to an animal. Interspersed are chapters on processes such as "Stridulation," "Good Vibrations," How Do Baby Animals Learn to Talk?" and "Mimics."

The back matter includes "Author's Note," "The Science Behind the Sounds," "Meet the Author," "Meet the Illustrator," "Glossary," "Index" (hooray!), and "Selected Sources."

I would have this book in a reading nook if I were a classroom teacher, and as someone who frequently invites people of all ages over to my house, I would put this book out as a coffee table book because it is easy to thumb through quickly to read just one entry or inviting enough for a guest to get lost in this book if it proves more interesting than the small talk going on in the room. Or better yet, it can serve as a conversation piece so that we humans can chat about animal chatter.

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun topic for a non fiction book: how animals communicate. Starting with primates, and covering mammals, insects, sea creatures, amphibians and birds, this quirky book describes the sounds that different animals make to communicate. Readers will learn the differences in how different animals ask for food, make friends, defend their territory, or seek a mate. Their vocal sounds are actually explained, as well as other sounds (stridulation, echo location), movements and smells. There’s even an explanation of dialect, as naked mole rats have different ways of communicating based on where they live. This is nice book for kids who enjoy animal behavior. I think it would be fun to read aloud with caregivers, with efforts made to imitate the “EEEEEEIIIIIIII” of marmosets, the “MA-AH-AH” of goats, or the “SKIKIKI” of a frog.

With a table of contents, glossary, index and sources, this book could be a good choice for an early elementary grade book report. I like the matter-of-fact language, and the bright, colorful cartoon art is a great counterpart to the text.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is both misleading, but also true book about how to understand what animals are saying. But, of course, if you spend any time with your pets, you dang well know what they are saying. I know that I know all the things the chickens say and what it means. And this is quite close to how they sounds.

And I would be surprised if no one knows what cats’ hissing means.

Still, I didn't know about how hippos spoke, or goats, as far as that goes.

So, not so much misleading, but disappointing that animals aren’t saying more. Some animals, in the book, only say “hey, I think I love you.”

Cute book, however, to show the “humanity” of animals, and their communications. Also fun, I suppose if you go to the zoo, to tell others what the animals are chattering about.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for making this book available for an honest review. This book comes out the 3rd of October 2023

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to Chat Chicken is a fun survey of how animals communicate. Divided by types of animals (primates, then somewhat familiar animals, and all the way down to insects), each page features a scene of animals exhibiting different behaviors and "speaking" with an onomatopoeic speech bubble that shows the sound the animal makes, a translation into English, and a caption explaining the communication.

The bright colors, cartoon format, and bold speech bubbles make this high-interest topic equally highly accessible. I like Crumpton's animal selection - he picks ones that are familiar enough but not necessarily common, like meerkats (remember Timon from The Lion King?). What looks to a young reader like a dauntingly large text at first glance becomes an ideally paced journey through the animal kingdom. Well-written and entertainingly illustrated, this informational text is a winner!

[Mrs Mommy Booknerd http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How to Chat Chicken" is an adventurous and whimsical guide that invites readers to step into the world of animal communication. This book is a playful journey into conversing with creatures, offering insights on chatting with chickens, gossiping with gorillas, mumbling with meerkats, and even warbling with whales. It's a fun and engaging read that prepares you for exciting adventures in the animal kingdom, ensuring you're ready to connect with creatures big and small in their unique languages.

[Lynsaroo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what message your 🐎 pets are trying to relay with their vocal exercises? Or questioned what the 🦊 fox says thanks to a catchy song? Zoologists have studied animals in the field to answer these age old questions (and many more) and this book explains the verbal and body language that some 🦍 primates, pets, bugs, birds, ocean 🐬 creatures and more have developed to survive and thrive.

[Kitchen Sink Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book drew me in. I have 7 chickens in my back garden, and I talk to them all the time, but I don’t know if I am speaking the right language. Do you have pets you like to talk to? Do you feel the same way – wonder if they know what you are saying? Maybe there are other animals that you would like to have conversations with. Help is at hand. Apparently, Dr Nick Crumpton knows that we have all been waiting to learn how to chat chicken, gossip gorilla, babble bee and even gab gecko. After all, with so many animals sharing the planet with us it is only sensible that we learn to speak to them. Let me share some facts from the book to give you some perspective… There are almost eight billion people on the planet all of whom speak to one another in languages they know and understand (mostly), we even try to learn other languages to be able to speak to one another. Animals have millions of languages we can at least dip our toes into learning some of them…

There are not only tips on how to speak to a wide variety of animals in this book but also some creatively imagined illustrations from Adrienne Burman showing us what it might be like if we were to hold conversations with the animals. If you think about it for too long your brain might pop with the vastness of it all but there are insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians all of whom talk to one another in their own unique languages. It might sound to us like they are grunting, squeaking, tweeting and even yowling but they are communicating and the combination of all these sounds is the orchestra of Life on Earth, one that we should tune into. Of course it is not all serious, there is a lot of humour in this book and plenty of real-life evidence for the teaching, Dr Crumpton has made use of sound recordings made by scientists who have been working in the wild to understand animals in their natural environments. Now it is your turn. Which language will you choose to learn first, and will you be brave enough to try it out one day too? I would love to know, I am sure your friends and family would love to hear you speak it too - do have fun!