The Unhuggables: The Truth About Snakes, Slugs, Skunks, Spiders, and Other Animals That Are Hard to Love by Victor Waldrop

by Victor H. Waldrop

Describes the physical characteristics, habits, and natural environment of a variety of mammals, insects, and other animals people often fear, dislike, or simply ignore.

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

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1988

Reviews

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all this book was published in 1988 so some of the information that was included in the book is now outdated while some of the information that we have now for some of these species has most definitely changed since then. Even so if you can overlook that particular soft spot then you will find this book quite informative otherwise about the animals that have been included.

What probably bugs me the most about this book is the fact that there are certain animals included that I find to be rather more huggable than unhuggable - orcas (wrongly called killer whales throughout the book), wolves to a great part of the population anymore and grizzlies who are the origin of the cuddly yet ever-present teddies that we send children off to bed. Pet skunks have become quite common and octopus are also slowly making their way into the hearts of the general population but then again this may be probably more part of this time than it was in 1988.

The rest of the book does tackle for the most part other animals that naturally are on the unhuggable scale to many such as any of the blood suckers, the slimy, unfortunately sharks, rats, various creepy crawlies as well as snakes just to name a few. To tackle this in a more organized way the book is broken up into six various sections that allow the readers to read about animals that fit a general trait whether they are unwelcomed visitors, creepy crawlies, monsters of the deep, blood lovers, slimy and snakes (the latter is the only species mentioned in the book that has their own whole section) so you can skip around if you would rather do that instead.

Each section is started off with a brightly colored two-page spread that has a cartoonish illustration with portrayal of a few or all of the section animals as well as an introduction paragraph. Followed by this the entries range anywhere from two pages to at the most eight although there are only two species that meet that need. The entries provide the readers with some behavioral information, some descriptive informational, some history behinds it reason for being unhuggable. Unfortunately for the reader these entries, though, are just basic species groupings thus tackling the species as a whole instead of individual species thus making an eight-page entry for snakes still rather anemic when you consider the numerous species and differences such a group can involve.

The entries are provided with brightly colored photographs with at least one full page photograph per entry. These are provided with captions explaining what is being shown although sometimes just repeating the information in the text above. Meanwhile the font is also rather small thus allowing along with the size of the book a lot of information but still making it a heavy read for the youngest of readers.

All in all it was a decent book and rather informative read in some cases with some information that I hadn't heard of before such as Meriwether Lewis being chased by a grizzly into a river during his expedition. Otherwise, though, the book just basically repeats general information that can be found in other books focused on the mentioned species, which being a bit more fun to read than this one.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid. Great pictures and educational.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for the chillins. Every critter plays a crucial role in the ecosystem.

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not much info on each animal/insect. Putting wolves with snakes and centipedes? Um, no.