Deadly Kingdom by Gordon Grice

This is subtitled "The Book of Dangerous Animals" and it's just that. It's got chapters with titles like, "The Carnivorids" and "Aquatic Dangers" and the one that I had to skip most of--"The Arthropods and Worms". Ugh.

General rating: 3.5 out of 4 (there were some less engaging parts and can the section on bugs really be considered uplifting?)

Plausible? Oh yes. Lots of very interesting information too.

Thought provoking? Well, it's an info book, so it's more informative than thought provoking. I learned stuff I didn't know though, like: black widows are just ONE member of the widow family; Lions and other big cats have killed a LOT of people and still do, every year; Elephants are not as gentle as I have always imagined. Very interesting.

Engaging: Yes! It was one that I read through fairly quickly and without stopping because I didn't get bored. The front half of the book was more interesting than the back half--probably because the most dramatically dangerous animals are written about in that first half. I liked the whole book, though, and I think my 12-year-old son might like it even better than I did.

Uplifting: Hm.... Well it wasn't depressing, although I had to skip quite a lot of the insect section--I don't have any contact with lions or elephants or box jellyfish, but I DO have contact with bugs (like everyone) and I decided I didn't want to know exactly what I was surrounded with. Plus I just plain don't like bugs. Especially spiders. Ugh. Sometimes NOT knowing is just more comfortable. Cowardly, I admit. But much more comfortable.

Language: no bad language
Sex: none

My recommendation: If you've any interest in this kind of thing at all, it's a fun and interesting read. I painlessly learned a lot that I didn't know before. Some of the information was actually useful--like learning about the social order of dogs and why some postures and some people (especially children) are more vulnerable to attacks. And I'm happy to report that, although there was a lot about the harm that dogs can do, there was NOTHING about any killer kitties--of the domestic type, that is.

Warning: There are lots of stories about animal attacks. Some details are given. It's not gory, but some of the things that happened are pretty horrifying.