Book Review: Whose Butt?

The "Whose Butt?" title sure catches your attention, doesn't it?   And you won't find a single animal face on the front or back cover of this book (other than the author's). 

Yup, it's a children's book by naturalist and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela highlighting the back end of 10 wild animals.

I'm very familiar with Stan's work, we carry a number of his adult titles in our Wild Birds Unlimited shop.  His series of state guides is very successful, in fact his Birds of New York Field Guide is the top-selling field guide in our shop.  But can he "bring it" to a children's book?

The motivation to produce the book, they state, is that even successful wildlife photographers like Stan end up with a lot of butt shots when their subjects fly, run, or dash away.  So instead of hitting delete, Stan decided to make the best of all those rear end shots by writing a children's book focusing on animals' butts.

Of course, Stan has nice images of his subjects from the front side as well, as he reveals what animal owns the butt on the previous page.  Ten animals are covered, giving the reader the opportunity to guess whose derrière they're seeing, and 3-4 facts are provided about the animal.  At the end of the book are 2 pages of additional facts about the featured animals.

Kids will have fun guessing the animal and but they'll have more fun being able to freely talk about butts without getting in trouble.  It may bring out a little bathroom humor, but at least they're learning something in the process.

"Whose Butt?" is a unique concept and cute book, but I wish it had been a little longer than its 44 pages, either showing more butt (meaning more animals) or more images and fun facts.

I still think this would be a fun book for the 5 or 6 year old in your life.  Just get ready for the giggles!

WHOSE BUTT?
by Stan Tekiela
Published by Adventure Publications 2012
ISBN 978-1-59193-374-8
$14.95

DRAWING:
Comment on this post to have your name entered in a drawing to win my review copy of Whose Butt?  Entries close January 31, 2013.  Winner will be notified by email.

Congratulations Elaine who won my review copy of Whose Butt?  Thanks to everyone who commented.

In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.  The book is also sold at a retail shop owned by the reviewer.

Comments

[The Zen Birdfeeder]

Thanks everyone for your comments and congratulations to Elaine!

[Red Bank House Cleaning]

What a great idea to use nature photographs to write such a cute book!

I just bought one for a favorite 4 year old. Can't wait to read it to him.

[Donna Haynes]

Sounds like a wonderful and fun book for kids! My son is 7 and would love this!

[Maggie Van Zandt]

I love this! I have several pictures of bird butts that all you can see are the tail/butt feathers. Makes a pretty abstract book. I will look for this book. I am sure the 1st graders at my duaghter's school will love it when I show up for "mystery reader.". Thanks for sharing!

[Gin]

What a super cute book and educational too! My two grand daughters would love it! They already have their own running gag about my Goldfinches, they call them banana birds and just crack themselves up. It started when they were little and I was introducing our birds at the feeders to them and showing them the colors that different birds are. We just happened to have bananas near by and so came the funny nick name, "banana bird" that we have all come to know and love and smile about. I think this book would be right up their alley of fun and educational reading. Thanks for the chance to win, ~Gin~ A.K.A. Grammie, the banana bird feeder.

[Elaine]

How cute! I will definately look for this book! I'm a librarian building a collection for my grandchildren. The first will be born in about 6 months!!!

[Maria Matrazzo]

My son and I saw this at your store this past weekend and thought it looked like a fun book!

[Susan Benson]

This would be a great for my grandsons. Butts talk always brings a lot of giggles and they love reading about nature and animals. Trying to get them interested in bird butts.

[Barb]

I don't know if you're familiar with the photography of Dave Lewis, but his "Birds from Behind" blog could have served as the inspiration for this book! In fact, I've often suggested that he should do a field guide using the back- and undersides of songbirds, since that's how we usually see them.

[Carole Sevilla Brown]

I love Stan's work! And since I have quite a few "butt" shots in my collection, I think this is a wonderful way to use them. I volunteer with an inner city classroom who wants to learn about birds and other animals and I know they'd think something like this is really funny.