This bright, colorful book explores the wild and wonderful variety of tongues in the world's animals. Discover long tongues, sticky tongues, trick tongues, tube tongues, black tongues, blue tongues, red tongues, fork tongues, spike tongues, brush tongues, straw tongues, smelling tongues, curly tongues, cooling tongues, heating tongues, cleaning tongues, talking tongues, glow-in-the-dark tongues, and so many more. Snakes and some lizards use their long, flickering tongues to smell predators and prey, while chameleons use the sticky tip of their long, stretchy tongues to catch bugs for dinner. Crocodiles use special glands on their tongues to remove salt from their bodies, while newborn whales and dolphins use small bumps on their tongues to hang on to mom while she swims. The book also includes fun, easy experiments that illustrate the way animal tongues work, and cool tongue facts to gross out family and friends. Real science has never been so much fun! Includes glossary and index.

8x10 hardcover with jacket, 36 pages, 4-color photography, $14.95.

"This is an outstanding book for elementary students. It introduces exploration and invention and then expands on what readers have read or viewed in the book. The simple language, coupled with amazing photographs of animals and their tongues, makes this book a great choice.

The information is factual as well as highly intriguing. The factual information is aligned to humans and their experiences. For example, when reading about the speed of the chameleon's tongue, the author states, "Its tongue is fast and long." Then the author asks, "How fast is fast?" To find out how fast this is, the author encourages the reader to "clap your hands together once or snap your fingers. In the time your hands were together, a chameleon's tongues could have shot out of its mouth 16 different times!" This activity meshes with the reading and provides an authentic experience to build scientific knowledge.

In addition, the book has trivia snippets throughout the text. The snippets are fun to read and provide the beginnings for searching for more about animal tongues. A glossary defines words that some young readers may not know. While reading the book, there were times I had to say, "Gee, I didn't know that!" In short, this fascinating book and its photographs will entice readers of all ages. And it will prompt them to want to find out more and more about tongues."

-- Review from National Science Teachers Association