Things That Make You Go Yuck!: Odd Couples

Some animals eat each other. Others work together in unexpected ways to survive a harsh and forbidding world. Whether it’s the mating dances of peacock spiders or the weird relationship between wasps and figs, crab-wearing sea urchins or ants who bully other ants but protect them from worse bullies, you cannot comprehend the peculiar inventiveness of Mother Nature and evolution.

Odd Couples, the latest edition of the Things That Make You Go Yuck! series, focuses on curious partnerships in nature, giving readers a play-by-play of just how interconnected the world truly is. Loaded with strange, fascinating, and surprising facts, this is a treasure trove of animal, plant, and insect weirdness to hook even the most skeptical of younger readers with awesome trivia, gross-out creativity, and vivid close-up photography of nature in action.

And even though this is written with younger readers in mind, complete with multiple choice quizzes and an abundance of exclamation points, older readers will still find plenty to entertain them here. Nothing really made me go “yuck!”, but several entries did make me go “hmmm.” That’s never a bad way to spend a few minutes.