Synopsis
Describes how different animals, such as elephants, birds, horses, and fish, keep themselves clean.
Children's Literature
Candid photographs and simple descriptions of the many ways animals clean themselves let children know they are not the only ones who take baths. A mother elephant squirts water from its trunk over its own back spraying its baby too. A piglet cools its skin and gets rid of itches by happily soaking in mud. A horse rolls on its back in dirt to scrub off sweat and insects. Even a fly is caught cleaning itself with a spongelike tongue. Small and large birds, amusing bears, even lions show their own special ways of cleaning themselves. All the other animals in the book have help with their cleaning. Chimpanzees pick off bugs and leaves from each other. Oxpecker birds cling to giraffes and eat ticks off their hides. Some fish eat algae off the skin of hippos, others clean off the scales of larger fish, and one type of shrimp dares to clean the teeth of a moray eel. Children are told how to make both water and dirt baths for birds so they can watch them in action. This book should be a welcome tool to persuade little ones to brush their teeth and take their baths at bedtime. 2000, The Millbrook Press, Ages 3 to 7, $21.90. Reviewer: Carol Raker Collins