CHOOSING the two most eye-catching stories to grace the cover page of this book must have been a daunting task. There is a surfeit of bizarre animal tales to choose from. The book might just as well have been called Remote-controlled Cockroaches and Flaming Pigs or Rambo Sheep and Farting Snakes.
As with Francesca Gould鈥檚 previous work, Self-harming Parrots and Exploding Toads is best dipped into rather than read from start to finish. The only cohesion to this selection of hilarious, and sometimes stomach-turning, vignettes lies in its eight alliterative chapter headings (鈥渃rafty creatures鈥�, 鈥渧icious varmints鈥�). From these, the reader will emerge an expert on animal trivia, able to regale their friends with stories about stoats that hypnotise their prey and fulmars that use vomit as a weapon. A perfect book for inquisitive types who are short on time or attention span.
Self-harming Parrots and Exploding Toads
Piatkus
