Thump Goes the Rabbit: How Animals Communicate (2020), written by Fran Hodgkins and illustrated by Taia Morley is a good solid nonfiction picture book. It is part of the Let’s Read-and-Find Out Science series, and, according to HarperCollins, there are 48 books on Level 1 of this series. This book is one of those, so if you and your preschooler to first grader (ish) like this one, you’ll probably like the others.
The visuals have an old-fashioned feel to them. Except for the specific body postures of the animals shown, the illustrations could have appeared in the 1950s. The text doesn’t tell a story, but instead, explains natural principles of communication. After the initial overview spread, the pages follow a clear and functional pattern: one simple sentence and a larger image on the left, more complex prose on the right. Kids will easily remember the single lines, and parents or teachers can then read the three to five lines of explanation on the right, explanations that go along with the more detailed and specific images on those pages. The communication techniques discussed include body posture (several animals), scent marking (cats), lights (fireflies), puffing up (owls) and sound (several animals). Some will be familiar to kids (cats), and some less so (not every kid has seen an owl, few a rattlesnake), but none of the really exotic animals out there are included.
The final pages shift to a new focus: inviting readers to be citizen scientists, and providing simple categories of communication they can use to classify their observations.
This book isn’t great–it is too functional and a bit clearly standardized–but is a solid teaching book, fit for any kid or school library.
