A Curious Collection of Dangerous Creatures: An Illustrated Encyclopedia

by Sami Bayly

From the frightening murder hornet to the fierce wolverine—a visual trove of the most dangerous animals on the planet, from the author of the beloved A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures

Sharks, snakes, and spiders get all the attention, but many of the most terrifying animals on the planet are probably ones you didn’t know were so dangerous—like the otherworldly blue dragon, a tiny sea slug that can unleash a powerful sting, or the lethal mosaic crab, armed with a toxin 1,000 times deadlier than cyanide. And some creatures get rather creative when it comes to warding off predators—which is what makes them so amazing to read about. Take the adorable greater slow This primate prepares to strike by first licking its venom-filled armpits!

Before you run and hide, award-winning author and illustrator Sami Bayly shows how, once you understand why these animals have adapted to be so dangerous, you’ll learn to appreciate their scarier sides. They’re only trying to survive! And with so many of these species threatened or endangered, they’re counting on us to learn to love and protect them . . . from a safe distance!

Publisher’s A Curious Collection of Dangerous Creatures was previously published in Australia under the title The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Animals, Childrens

128 pages, Hardcover

Published December 14, 2021

About the author

Sami is 27 years old and is currently based in Newcastle, NSW.

She has released 4 books, 3 of which are part of The Illustrated Encyclopaedia series: The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals and The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Peculiar Pairs in Nature.

With her 4th being the first of a newly released series, How We Came To Be - Surprising Sea Creatures.
All published by Lothian/Hachette Australia.

Over the years Sami has won and been nominated for numerous awards, these include:
Winner of the Children's Indie Book of the Year Award - Indie Book Awards
Winner of the Environmental Award for Children’s Literature Non-fiction - The Wilderness Society
Winner of the Sun Project Shadow Judging - Shadowers’ Choice for the Eve Pownall Award - CBCA
Winner of the Best Designed Children’s Non-Fiction Illustrated book - Australian Book Design Awards.
2020 GOLD Winner for the Juvenile Non-Fiction Award - Foreword Reviews
Honour for the Eve Pownall Award - CBCA
Shortlisted for the Book of the Year for Younger Children - ABIA’s
Shortlisted for the Booksellers' Choice 2020 Book of the Year Awards - ABA’s
Shortlisted for the Children’s Book of The Year - Queensland Literacy Awards
Highly Commended for the NSW Community Educator of the Year - AAEE
Longlisted for the World Illustration Awards (Science & Technology category) - Association of Illustrators
Included in the top 50 Favourite Australian Books - Booktopia
Winner of the Emerging Artist Competition - The Olive Tree Market
Winner of the Start Your Studio Scholarship Award - Jasco Art
Winner of the William Fletcher Foundation Fund - University of Newcastle
Co-winner of the Scientific Illustration Scholarship - Australian Museum

Her books have also been published overseas in numerous countries including the UK, USA, South Korea and Russia. With future publications to be released in Sweden, Israel, China and more.

To keep up to date you can follow Sami on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samibayly/

Reviews

[Julie Herringa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The illustrations were beautiful and I want to see the other books Bayly has illustrated.

Errors in books do eat at me, though. There was an error in the Goliath Tigerfish size scale. They listed a piranha instead of the tigerfish.

[Philip]

I'm so not that target audience for this book that I'm not going to rate it. It's an illustrated introductory book of more or less dangerous animals aimed at children. And I'm sure it would have been awesome, had I been seven. As it was, well, the illustrations were cool enough... I guess.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title says, this is a collection of dangerous creatures. Most present potential harm to humans if they come into contact, though some are dangerous for other creatures in their environment. Each spread includes one large illustration of the animal with a brief introduction, the opposite page includes 5 brief text books on Danger Factor, What They Eat, Conservation Status, Where They Live, and Fun Facts plus a scale shadow illustration.

I got Bayly's book on symbiotic creatures earlier this year and immediately had students ask for more of her books. This one is interesting, but needed 1 more round of content editing. The very first entry on the African Buffalo contains an error in stating that the Big 5 in Africa are called such for their danger to humans (which is wrong, if it were, hippos would be included...originally the big 5 were the 5 most desired animals by big game hunters, now they are the 5 most desired to be spotted on safaris). There's another error on the Tigerfish page. The scale shadow illustration was accidentally a copy of the piranha one and is very incorrect for the 5 ft long Tigerfish. Other than those 2 errors, everything else I read was correct as far as I could tell. I put notes on those 2 pages for students who check out the book. I see online that this is marketed to kids, but the vocabulary used in the book sounds like an average book aimed at adults. I think middle school and YA are perfect for it, as they should not get lost in the writing and find it interesting. Hand this to animal lovers and curious readers.

Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: Danger Factor on each page does tell how these animals kill prey and sometimes how often they kill humans. No violence depicted in illustrations.
Ethnic diversity: N/A (though the animals come from all over the world, it is a good mix)
LGBTQ+ content: none
Other: This may be dated in a few years as vulnerability status for animals change and such.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is another Sami Bayly book and with the notorious woods devil on its front I knew that I had to read this particular book to see whether she could make this book a hit unlike the last one. And I must say that I am quite impressed that she actually did a much better job.

Just like A Curious Collection of Peculiar Creatures: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, A Curious Collection of Dangerous Creatures: An Illustrated Encyclopedia follows the same page set-up. Going in alphabetical order, each two-page spread is devoted to one species. There is one giant colored illustration for the species while its common name is the title and the binomial name is included below that with the ever helpful pronunciation guide included.

From there each species has an introduction with the rest of the information broken down into sections that explore Danger Factor (rightfully titled in warning red), Conservation Status, What They Eat and Where They Live. This is then followed by a Fun Facts book and somewhere on the page is included a supplemental sketch drawing or two.

My only main confusion to this book was the fact that there wasn't any clear consensus on what the author was trying to achieve when she was talking about dangerous. In some species they were dangerous to other animals including humans but in other cases they were only dangerous to other animals while perhaps just hurting humans but not killing them.

Still it is a decent book to get started with children both for its animal knowledge but also to help in getting them started on learning why necessary caution is needed when it comes to wildlife no matter how small or large they may be, now matter how cute or even how non-dangerous they may seem like a butterfly.

[Cyndie Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect many will find the animals that are potentially the most dangerous to people are the ones they'd least expect or might know the least about. Some animals that people might expect to be dangerous because they are some of the most poisonous or venomous animals in the world are in here too - but often then end up being not much of a risk to people.

Each animal has two pages that feature a gorgeous illustration as well as some basic information about the animal, why it's dangerous, what it eats, its conservation status, plus a couple other misc. facts for good measure. I'd spotted it quite a while ago and was glad I tracked it down to read.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally the kind of fun browseable nonfiction that anyone can enjoy, this is an encyclopedia of dangerous creatures from amphibians to mammals. It's got an easy-to-follow formula which includes an illustration of the animal and brief paragraph then it jumps into their diet, habitat, what makes them dangerous, how they live, and lastly a few fun facts.

Who doesn't love a good fun fact or four? It's enlightening and informative with a cool front cover and focused attention to animals that don't get a lot of love because of their danger (mosquitoes and squids, red kangaroos, and spiders).

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give this to every kid who loves scary creatures. Every entry starts with general information about the creature, then has subtopics addressing the Danger Factor, What they eat, Where they live, Conservation status and some Fun Facts. Creatures highlighted range from bugs to fish to birds to mammals. Interestingly, it highlights the Mako Shark, but not the more famous Great White Shark. The end matter includes a list of conservation organizations, but no bibliography, map, or other information.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is bright a vivid with its pictures, all seem to be hand-drawn and painted instead of digital art like many new books. The information is clear and knowledgeable. I ordered this book for my young readers at work, and hope it will be checked out and enjoyed. I for one loved the information I read through.

[Liz]

This is by no means bad. I looked it over for my library's collection and it wasn't quite the right fit, so I didn't feel the need to finish it. Not bad, just not something I felt compelled to finish.

[₊˚ ⁀➴ kenzie ⠀❦ jacks’ version · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the illustrations, and my favorite animal to read about was the giant otter.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it included a map of each location/habitat area.