Whose bones? by Chihiro Takeuchi

Berbay Publishing, 2020. ISBN: 9780648785163.
(Age: 3+) Highly recommended. A most amazing book to read and reread, impelling readers to look closely at the illustrations, urging them to ask questions. Each set of bones is changed into an animal, bird or human when the page is turned. Children will be eager to recognise the being from the bones, while over the page shows the animal and its bones all arranged together. Readers will eye off the number of hands, piece together the bones that may be the back bone, look for the skull and so derive some idea of what it may be. All questioning, all enticing, all making those thought processes work overtime. Children will be made more aware of the skeletons that make up vertebrates of the world, make observations about their own skeletons, look for pictures which give more information, tantalised by this book and the openings it offers.
The single hued pages give a clear image of the bones, firstly paid out like a puzzle, then put in their correct order with a similar image of the animal beside it. The colours used accentuate the bones encouraging young readers to look more closely, and be
in awe of the artist who is able to cut out such shapes with accuracy. Again younger readers (and others) will be enthusiastic to try out their own skills.
The pages for vertebrates: snake, lion, crocodile, koala, elephant, flamingo and whale follow the same pattern, and these are followed by a double page with six more to puzzle over. At the end of the book is a double page with information about each of the vertebrates shown, and I love the end papers, with the human skeletons at one end and a filled in version of little people at the other.
This is a book which will inform and delight, introducing younger readers to the idea of vertebrates and their skeletons, encouraging a lifelong interest in science.
Themes: Vertebrates, Animals, STEM, Humour.
Fran Knight