Owl Puke: Book and Owl Pellet FROM THE PUBLISHER
Kids love science-especially when it's hands-on-and kids love yucky stuff
. What is an owl pellet? It's the football-shaped object regurgitated twice a day by owls, which contains the skeleton of at least one owl meal, be it a mouse, vole, shrew, or small bird.
Used in elementary schools to teach the "food web"-but virtually unavailable at retail-a professionally collected, heat-sterilized owl pellet is now married to a lively, two-color illustrated book filled with facts and related activities about these most amazing birds. And what a story the Owl Puke Book tells-of the food chain, animal anatomy, life in the forest; of a bird that could read the bottom line of an eye chart from one mile away; and of a fierce hunter that swallows its prey headfirst and digests everything but the bones, which it spits back up in a pellet. As for the story the pellet tells, kids need only a toothpick to find out. The package includes a tray to hold the bones and a chart to help identify the pellet's contents. It's a hoot.
Author Biography: Jane Hammerslough is the author of more than 20 books for kids, including Langur Monkeys and Snakes: Face to Face. A former teacher and award-winning parenting columnist, she writes regularly for Child and Martha Stewart Kids and contributes to Parenting, Family Circle, and other publications. She lives with her family and numerous animals in Westport, Connecticut.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Budding naturalists (or perhaps sanitation engineers) can delight in digestive dissections in Owl Puke by Jane Hammerslough, which includes a genuine, bona fide owl pellet as well as a plastic bone-sorting tray with which kids can categorize the treasures found within. The accompanying paperback book proffers fascinating and funny owl info (an "Almost Everybody Pukes" section details various regurgitation habits across the animal kingdom), along with pictures, cartoon illustrations, a glossary and instructions for how to dig into the pellet itself. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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