Author

Lauren Taylor, Marianne Taylor

Title

What if – Humans Were Like Animals?

Publisher

Buster Books (London), 2013

Description

What if your parents appeared to have two pairs of eyes? Some birds have eye-like patterns on the backs of their heads, so it seems like they’re watching you when they’re not. Your devious deeds might come to an end if you had trouble telling whether you were being watched or not,” Marianne Taylor and Lauren Taylor ask in their book, “What if Humans Were Like Animals – The Amazing and Disgusting Life You’d Lead as a Snake, Bird, Fish or Worm!”

With one hundred and forty-three pages, this hardbound small book is targeted toward elementary to middle school children with no profanity or uncomfortable topics except for making fun of bodily functions. Illustrator Paul Moran does a thorough job with his artistic black and white ink drawings on every page. Having seventy-two different topics, unfortunately there is no index for quick animal reference at the back of the book.

Taylor and Taylor are creative in their adaption of animals to humans by asking what if we had specific body designs or traits similar to animals. Starting with common themes such as eyes, ears, mouth and teeth, drawings and descriptions correlate spiders, flies, honeybees, lizards and flatfish to our own bodies with fun, imaginative pictures.