Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2025 *Starred Review* In a series of presentations that teachers will find as hilarious as their young charges will, an earthworm, a zebra, and 18 more animals deliver oral reports on . . . other animals. Each report has a distinctly individual voice and character, but some students really go for the gusto: the fox raves about the tastiness of goose (to the outrage of a feathered classmate), and a midwife toad notes that when koalas mate, some of the male’s semen plugs up the female to prevent intercourse with other males. A seemingly staid barn owl’s discourse on the Tasmanian devil is likewise riveting: “He can rip the skin off a kangaroo with the greatest of ease, and break the bones of a wallaby as if they were twigs.” Whoa. As counterexamples, a snow leopard’s off-the-cuff remarks on, well, snow leopards show every sign of zero research, and a howler monkey’s on the unicorn hint that someone wasn’t listening when the assignment was handed out. Questions and reactions to each talk from the multispecies audience add further opportunities for banter and fact-dropping so that, along with fairly substantial doses of actual natural history, receptive readers will effortlessly absorb practical advice about researching, organizing, and delivering effective oral presentations of their own. Van Haeringen adds tongue-in-cheek portraits of each animal student and subject done in a wide variety of styles and media. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.