Mighty Scared: The Amazing Ways Animals Defend Themselves

by Erin Silver, Hayden Maynard (Illustrator)

Learn about the wild, wacky and downright disgusting ways some animals react out of fear. Are you afraid of the dark? Of getting lost? Or of something you saw in a movie? Maybe someone laughed at you for being scared or called you a chicken. That’s okay! In fact, it’s how humans stay safe in scary situations. While people might run or scream, animals have amazing ways of protecting themselves when they’re afraid. Fulmar birds vomit, Texas horned lizards shoot blood from their eyes and hagfish slime their enemies. Full of incredible and sometimes gross animal facts, Mighty Scared explores how mammals, insects, fish and birds around the world respond when scary predators are near.

Genres: Animals, Childrens, Nonfiction, Nature, Canada, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

Published February 13, 2024

Reviews

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but very competent book, this covers the potentially niche subject of how animals defend themselves. Here then we get a slightly cartoonish portrait on a double-paged spread, with two sections of text, the one containing some data about the creature and the very purpose we're here for – to see their abilities. So there are bullets of a kind, slime, and enough electricity from an eel to down a horse. The other section of text might not endear this to all school librarians concerned, for it's a three-question Q&A with said critter, complete with some kind of put-upon character or style for each. I guess it's to be called a second way of learning from this, as it didn't really seem that necessary to have that as well as the other paragraph – it really felt like every spread could have all the information in one space.

But the information we get is fine – I didn't know pygmy sperm whales and their habit of defensively farting out ink. Fulmar vomit, that stinks any enemy away, can be an emergency reserve of food for the bird that up-chucked it. All told, we get the standard animals here – I don't think beyond the whales anything came as a surprise – and we might have had a page with more about our own 'fight or flight' reactions, but this has to be said to serve its purpose.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin Silver with illustrator Hayden Maynard create a fascinating introduction to the way animals defend themselves against predators and/or attack prey.

The book has two open pages per creature. the images are 75% of the facing pages. Text makes up the remaining 25% There are repeating headings: One paragraph with basic information. "When They Get Scared," which is a paragraph about their awesome powers of spitting, shocking, stinging, etc. And then three smaller paragraphs labeled as questions directed to the creature: "What scares you?" "How do you fight back?" and "Any other cool fact you want to share."

The creatures profiled are as follows: Pistol Shrimp (exploding bubbles), Hagfish (super mucus), Electric Eels (600 volts of electricity), Box Jellyfish (15 stinging tentacles), Pigmy Sperm Whales (3 gallons aka 11 liters of ink), Assassin Bugs (two types of venom), Texas Horned Lizard (shooting eye blood), opossums (plays dead and emits a stinky smell), Camels (high-speed spit), Horseflies (bloodsucking), Japanese Honeybees (roasting prey as a group by bee balling), Fulmar Birds (oily, sticky, smelly vomit), Flying Squirrels (camouflage, puffing up, speedy leaping, and flying).

Oh, I am thrilled and freaked out at the same time!

The backmatter includes a glossary.

This is a fun book for kid who enjoy being scared (in a safe environment).

[Wunderdrugged · Rating 2 out of 5]

This title is nominated for the 2026 Hackmatack Award in the English Non-fiction category. I thought the premise of the book - ways that animals defend themselves - was really cool. I liked how each page spread featured a different animal. There was a glossary, which I think will be helpful for some of the new words (i.e. 'estuaries'). I'm sure it's probably difficult to get actual photographs of some of these animals, but it would have been super cool. Even a page with weblinks so you could see them in their natural habitats. This is one that I would recommend to animal lovers and/or kids who are into gross stuff.

[Martha Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erin Silver writes well -- this book is funny and full of information about animals that defend themselves well like shooting blood from their eyes or carrying the carcasses of their prey on their back. Each animal gets an overview of their distinctive defenses and then there is an animal first person interview! The book uses an animal catalogue approach rather then staying in one ecosystem (since she's looking for the weirdest, grossest, most incredible animal actions.) I was a bit disappointed in the art -- it has an old fashioned feel that might be off putting for kids. But the writing is terrific!

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really compelling creative nonfiction title. I loved the comic book style illustrations and the several invitations to learn about different animals. Focusing on self-defense mechanisms of various animals works pretty nicely.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good information.