Melissa Stewart
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Ick!

Delightfully Disgusting Animal Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses

Ick! Delightfully Disgusting Animal Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses

by Melis­sa Stewart

Nation­al Geo­graph­ic
for Kids, 2020

for ages 8–12

ISBN 978–1‑42633–746‑8

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

Get ready to be total­ly grossed out as you dis­cov­er the incred­i­bly icky ways ani­mals eat, make their homes, and defend themselves.

From ants to zebras, you’ll dis­cov­er some seri­ous­ly strange ani­mal behav­iors. Slurp up soupy insides with house­flies, spit sticky sali­va to build nests with birds, and fend off preda­tors with poop-fling­ing cater­pil­lars and fart­ing snakes. And that’s just the tip of the dung pile! These yucky habits may seem sur­pris­ing to us, but they’re total­ly nor­mal for these ani­mals. In fact, their sur­vival depends on them.

Live­ly text, incred­i­ble pho­tog­ra­phy, and all kinds of fun fea­tures make this book a must read for curi­ous kids. Ready to chew some fin­ger­nails with cock­roach­es? Dive into the dis­gust­ing world of animals!

Northern Fulmar illustration from Ick! by Melissa Stewart
North­ern Ful­mar illus­tra­tion from Ick! by Melis­sa Stew­art, pub­lished by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic for Kids, 2020
Black-Backed Jackal illustration from Ick! by Melissa Stewart, published by National Geographic for Kids, 2020
Black-Backed Jack­al illus­tra­tion from Ick! by Melis­sa Stew­art, pub­lished by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic for Kids, 2020
Asian Bombardier Beetle illustration from Ick! by Melissa Stewart, published by National Geographic for Kids, 2020
Asian Bom­bardier Bee­tle illus­tra­tion from Ick! by Melis­sa Stew­art, pub­lished by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic for Kids, 2020

Reviews

“Ready for a slide through some of the ani­mal kingdom’s more revolt­ing behav­iors? Cue the mucus! Arrays of big, bright nature pho­tos show­ing more than 50 crea­tures rang­ing from cute, fuzzy cot­ton­tails and baby pan­das to the ever pop­u­lar Pacif­ic hag­fish and evoca­tive­ly named pus­tu­lat­ed car­rion bee­tle (not to mention—but let’s—the bone-eat­ing snot flower worm) anchor this glee­ful intro­duc­tion to many of nature’s poop eaters, slime exud­ers, pro­jec­tile vom­iters, car­rion recy­clers, and butt squirters. As if it were nec­es­sary, reg­u­lar side­bars offer “Extra Ick!” to a com­men­tary punc­tu­at­ed by the occa­sion­al ‘Yuck!’ or ‘Now, that’s dis­gust­ing!’ Stew­art hap­pi­ly brings on the gross as she trum­pets the ‘Tox­ic Toots’ of the bead­ed lacewing’s lar­va, buzzes over flesh fly mag­gots that eat out har­le­quin toads from the inside (‘That’s right: In this sce­nario, the toad croaks’), and flings out stom­ach-churn­ing facts about “vile vit­tles” and the many uses of spit.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Dou­ble-page spreads describe each ani­mal and a fas­ci­nat­ing (but gross) aspect to their every­day lives. High-res­o­lu­tion pho­tographs offer visu­al appeal, and the text is orga­nized into bite-size pieces of infor­ma­tion that are pleas­ing­ly arranged on the page. The col­ors accent­ing the pho­tos are bright and bold. A glos­sary, select­ed sources, cred­its, and an index are also fea­tured. VERDICT: An excel­lent addi­tion to ele­men­tary school libraries.” (School Library Jour­nal)

“Stewart’s writ­ing is ter­rif­ic! The gen­er­al descrip­tions are won­der­ful­ly done, snap­py, full of groan-wor­thy puns but also clear, infor­ma­tive, and atten­tion-hold­ing. … There is plen­ty of dis­gust­ing icky facts that kids will glee­ful­ly read and share with every­one around them.” (Non­fic­tion Mon­day)

“Stew­art under­stands that expos­i­to­ry books like Ick! have val­ue in the class­room dur­ing book talks, instruc­tion, or as men­tor texts in writ­ing work­shop. By the con­clu­sion, edu­ca­tors might find that the genius of Ick! will encour­age a read­er with ‘a curi­ous mind—and a strong stom­ach’ to become enthu­si­as­tic about sci­ence. A high­ly worth­while read!” (Most­ly about Non­fic­tion)

“Spread by spread in ICK!, Melis­sa Stew­art intro­duces us to ani­mal behav­iors we may find bizarre, but are cru­cial to sur­vival. Each page’s eye-pop­ping col­ors and real-life pho­tos will be sure to lead read­ers to inquiry and cause curios­i­ty. Equal fun and gross!” (Dylan Teut, Plum Creek Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Fes­ti­val Direc­tor, Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty, Seward, NE)

Behind the Book

“The sto­ry behind this book traces all the way back to a three-week research trip I took to East Africa in 1996. Dur­ing the safari, I watched with fas­ci­na­tion as a moth­er black-backed jack­al upchucked her par­tial­ly-digest­ed din­ner to feed her three feisty pups. When the lit­tle ones had eat­en their fill, she scarfed down the mushy leftovers.

“The next day, while observ­ing a gerenuk stand­ing on its tip­py toes as it ate, our guide told us that it’s one of more than 150 mam­mals (includ­ing cows) that regur­gi­tate their food and re-munch their lunch as many as four times. It’s their way of eking every pos­si­ble nutri­ent from the tough plants they eat.

“Right then and there, I start­ed mak­ing a list of ani­mals that vom­it their vit­tles as a sur­vival strat­e­gy. Over time, I added more than a dozen insects, birds, and mam­mals to that list.

“But why stop there? I also made lists of crea­tures that use poop, pee, spit, snot, and oth­er bod­i­ly sub­stances in the most sur­pris­ing ways. Even­tu­al­ly, I had more than enough infor­ma­tion for a 112-page book.”

Ick! Delightfully Disgusting Animal Dinners, Dwellings, and Defenses

by Melis­sa Stewart

Nation­al Geo­graph­ic
for Kids, 2020

for ages 8–12

ISBN 978–1‑42633–746‑8

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

Book Extensions

Ick Interactive