Cat Eyes and Dog Whistles: The Seven Senses of Humans and Other Animals

By Author / Illustrator

Cathy Evans, Becky Thorns

Genre

Animals

Age range(s)

Publisher

Cicada Books

ISBN

9781800660137

Format

Hardback

Published

07-10-2021

Synopsis

They say that seeing is believing - and there's some truth in that. Highly sensitive receptor cells in our eyes, ears, noses, tongues and skin relay messages to the brain and allow us to interpret the things going on around us, creating our sense of reality. But how do our senses work? And how do they differ from the senses of other animals?

This book takes young readers step by step through the biology of each of the senses. Clear texts are peppered with fascinating facts. Did you know that, unlike the other senses, smells are delivered directly to the parts of our brain that are responsible for memory and emotion, meaning that smells can trigger feelings in a way that sight or sound can't? Did you know that a cow has about 250,000 tastebuds, compared to 5,000 of a human, and a mere 30 of a chicken? Or that earwax is 80% dead skin?

With bold, bright illustrations by award winning illustrator, Becky Thorne, this is a marvellous science/biology book that will get kids thinking about how they interact with the world around them.

Reviews

Cat Eyes and Dog Whistles is all about senses! This non-fiction book covers, in great detail, the seven senses of humans and other animals...yes you read that right! The illustrations are great and help to convey meaning; the text is generally split into different text bubbles and boxes on each page so there aren't any particularly large walls of text. The font is quite small and it uses / introduces subject-specific vocabulary - making it s book for older readers or for younger ones to enjoy with an adult.

It's quite useful for accompanying the science curriculum, it's very informative and children will like the drawings, which have a humourous edge to them.

64 pages / Reviewed by Lizi Backhouse, teacher