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Acting Wild: How We Behave Like Birds, Bugs, and Beasts
How are humans different from other animals? This is a question scientists have long tried to answer. As it turns out, some of the very things researchers once thought distinguished humans—our creativity, our problem-solving ability, our capacity for planning or abstract thought— actually make us very similar to other animals! This nonfiction book introduces several different behaviors that humans and other animals share, including farming, teaching, laughing, building, mourning, communicating, grooming, playing, traveling, using tools, and working together.
Narrated by a funny and friendly ant, this book is packed with humor and playful phrasing to bring lightness to the exploration of animal behavior. Brought to life by bright and wacky cartoon-style illustrations, Acting Wild will leave kids with the understanding that acting like an animal is simply in their nature.
Narrated by a funny and friendly ant, this book is packed with humor and playful phrasing to bring lightness to the exploration of animal behavior. Brought to life by bright and wacky cartoon-style illustrations, Acting Wild will leave kids with the understanding that acting like an animal is simply in their nature.
32 pages, Hardcover
Published August 13, 2019
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 17, 2019
Like the library reviewer who commented that the book "has too much information," I was expecting less content from this book. Unlike that reviewer, I don't think a lot of information is a bad thing, though! I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of content and just revised the way I'd use the books with my kids.
This short book features sections of ways that animals are like humans, in sometimes quite surprising ways. I expected a few short sentences and generalities, like ants work together and humans work together, and we all like to play. Instead, it gives one in-depth paragraph or two for each of several types of animals who do the sorts of things we humans do (and tend to think we're alone in doing them), in a range of categories.
Categories included are:
Let it grow (featuring profiles of animals that raise livestock, garden, etc.)
That will teach you (profiles of ways animals teach their young)
Laugh it up (profiles of animals that giggle and laugh)
Dealing with death (animals that mourn, have funerals, etc.)
Creature construction (how animals build)
Tools of the trade (ways that animals make and use tools)
Join the conversation (ways they communicate)
Clean as a whistle (hygiene and such)
It's all fun and games (playing)
This calls for teamwork (working together)
Time for a trip (ways they can move long distances)
The book goes past the usual cliches of ways animals are like us and I learned a few things that were new to me, like the fact that some monkeys floss their teeth and that some birds teach their young a special chirp to identify them starting when they're in their eggs, which the babies must chirp to the mama before she'll feed them so she knows they've learned it. I knew that they had their own chirps to identify each other, but didn't know about the lessons at feeding time to teach it.
I found this book very interesting and entertaining, and plan to read it with my 7 y/o and 12 y/o this week. It was actually a little better than I expected from the cover. Colorful illustrations accompany the text. Younger kids will probably enjoy this as a read-aloud, while older kids can just read it for interesting trivia. Kids who like animals will probably find it especially fun.
My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost
I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.
This short book features sections of ways that animals are like humans, in sometimes quite surprising ways. I expected a few short sentences and generalities, like ants work together and humans work together, and we all like to play. Instead, it gives one in-depth paragraph or two for each of several types of animals who do the sorts of things we humans do (and tend to think we're alone in doing them), in a range of categories.
Categories included are:
Let it grow (featuring profiles of animals that raise livestock, garden, etc.)
That will teach you (profiles of ways animals teach their young)
Laugh it up (profiles of animals that giggle and laugh)
Dealing with death (animals that mourn, have funerals, etc.)
Creature construction (how animals build)
Tools of the trade (ways that animals make and use tools)
Join the conversation (ways they communicate)
Clean as a whistle (hygiene and such)
It's all fun and games (playing)
This calls for teamwork (working together)
Time for a trip (ways they can move long distances)
The book goes past the usual cliches of ways animals are like us and I learned a few things that were new to me, like the fact that some monkeys floss their teeth and that some birds teach their young a special chirp to identify them starting when they're in their eggs, which the babies must chirp to the mama before she'll feed them so she knows they've learned it. I knew that they had their own chirps to identify each other, but didn't know about the lessons at feeding time to teach it.
I found this book very interesting and entertaining, and plan to read it with my 7 y/o and 12 y/o this week. It was actually a little better than I expected from the cover. Colorful illustrations accompany the text. Younger kids will probably enjoy this as a read-aloud, while older kids can just read it for interesting trivia. Kids who like animals will probably find it especially fun.
My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost
I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.
June 25, 2020
This title is nominated for the 2021 Hackmatack Award in the English non-fiction category. In 'Acting Wild: how we behave like birds, bugs, and beasts', author Maria Birmingham challenges kids to take a look at the animals around us and notice the ways in which we as humans behave similarly. I never knew that some species of fish basically farm algae, or that some monkeys floss their teeth. There are a lot of interesting facts like that throughout the book. The illustrations are fun, and the way the book is divided up into topics make it easy to pick up and set down - could be useful for the classroom or bedtime reading. I would recommend for curious kids and adults, especially animal lovers.
September 8, 2019
Acting Wild, narrated by an enthusiastically chatty ant, displays ways in which humans are just as wild as the other members of the animal kingdom.
Maria Birmingham effectively references a wide sampling of creatures and their behaviors to compare with humans. From apes to ants, small and large creatures share with humans the ability to use tools, farm, and build. From shrimp to kangaroos, teamwork and fun are also present in the wild. Staying clean and educating one another cross the species boundary as well, lemurs and birds being examples.
Humorous, colorful, and very anthropomorphic illustrations by Dave Whamond with animals acting more like humans than the other way around: a groundhog on a mobile phone; a chimpanzee operating a street food vendor cart; a ring tailed lemur using a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush; elephants dressed in black while mourning; beavers in construction hats and heavy machinery.
Are we acting like animals? Or are animals acting like us? At the core, we’re all animals behaving like animals, and that message is delivered in this book, both through Birmingham’s words and Whamond’s images. While only a standard thirty-two pages, this book is notably longer than your average bedtime story picture book. The table of contents helpfully separates each spread into its own little “chapter,” making it easy to call lights out and resume the next night, if desired. The end matter contains a glossary and further reading suggestions for those who enjoyed the book and want to learn more. (I did, and I do!)
Thanks to Owlkids Books, Maria Birmingham and Dave Whamond, and to NetGalley for the provided e-ARC and the opportunity to read this book. My review is honest, unbiased, and voluntary. #NetGalley #ActingWild
(The “American Gothic” ants on page eight were an amusing detail.)
Maria Birmingham effectively references a wide sampling of creatures and their behaviors to compare with humans. From apes to ants, small and large creatures share with humans the ability to use tools, farm, and build. From shrimp to kangaroos, teamwork and fun are also present in the wild. Staying clean and educating one another cross the species boundary as well, lemurs and birds being examples.
Humorous, colorful, and very anthropomorphic illustrations by Dave Whamond with animals acting more like humans than the other way around: a groundhog on a mobile phone; a chimpanzee operating a street food vendor cart; a ring tailed lemur using a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush; elephants dressed in black while mourning; beavers in construction hats and heavy machinery.
Are we acting like animals? Or are animals acting like us? At the core, we’re all animals behaving like animals, and that message is delivered in this book, both through Birmingham’s words and Whamond’s images. While only a standard thirty-two pages, this book is notably longer than your average bedtime story picture book. The table of contents helpfully separates each spread into its own little “chapter,” making it easy to call lights out and resume the next night, if desired. The end matter contains a glossary and further reading suggestions for those who enjoyed the book and want to learn more. (I did, and I do!)
Thanks to Owlkids Books, Maria Birmingham and Dave Whamond, and to NetGalley for the provided e-ARC and the opportunity to read this book. My review is honest, unbiased, and voluntary. #NetGalley #ActingWild
(The “American Gothic” ants on page eight were an amusing detail.)
July 8, 2019
This educational, non-fiction and fun book is narrated by a friendly ant. Now that aspect alone will get a kid's attention. Mr. Ant does a stellar job of pointing out similar behaviours between humans and those belonging to the animal kingdom.
He compares their behaviours in: farming, teaching, laughing, building, mourning, communicating, grooming, playing, traveling, using tools, and working together. You will be pleasantly surprised to find out so many ways that we act the same.
Kids will love the playful and humorous illustrations that are detailed and expressive. The table of content at the beginning easily divides the book into mini chapters and a glossary and further reading suggestions section is included at the end for those who want to dig deeper.
These fascinating facts will educate not only kids but adults too. It would be a wonderful addition to a classroom, elementary school library or for a reluctant reader. I highly recommend this book.
He compares their behaviours in: farming, teaching, laughing, building, mourning, communicating, grooming, playing, traveling, using tools, and working together. You will be pleasantly surprised to find out so many ways that we act the same.
Kids will love the playful and humorous illustrations that are detailed and expressive. The table of content at the beginning easily divides the book into mini chapters and a glossary and further reading suggestions section is included at the end for those who want to dig deeper.
These fascinating facts will educate not only kids but adults too. It would be a wonderful addition to a classroom, elementary school library or for a reluctant reader. I highly recommend this book.
November 1, 2019
What a delightful, digestible way to introduce the idea that human-mammals are members of the spectrum of life of Earth. The short passages and comparisons not only provide engaging content about various animals from around the world but also to develop observational skills regarding the wider world and our own behaviors and patterns.
July 10, 2019
I was not expecting a book filled with information. There is too much information on the pages for the type of book that it is trying to be. I would have liked contrast between some things we do and some things animals do. That's what I really expected from this book.
September 12, 2019
Did you know that dogs laugh? Neat book with lots of information about how humans and animals are similar. Cute, humorous illustrations to go along with the explanations.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews