* If Get the Scoop on Animal Puke is a comparative anatomy book in disguise, then Get the Scoop on Animal Snot, Spit & Slime is a biochemistry book camouflaged as what literacy specialist Dr. Ernest Johnson describes as a "yucky book." Don't believe it? Look through your copy and read about chitinase in octopus saliva or phospholipidase in some snake venom. Proteins rock!
* Unlike the subjects of the two previous
Get the Scoop books, mucus and saliva
are difficult to photograph and even more
difficult to reproduce in book form. Even
when they are photographed and printed
exceptionally well, readers need to look
carefully to appreciate the animal's
behavior. Check out the water-holding
frog from Australia below. These frogs
spend the dry season buried underground
in mucous cocoons made from many
layers of shed mucus and skin.
FUN FACTS
Get the Scoop on Animal Snot, Spit & Slime,
published by Quarto/MoonDance, 8x10, 80 pages,
ISBN 978-1633221154