A great book for all ages.
Feature image credit: Allen & Unwin
Corey Tutt is a Kamilaroi man born in New South Wales. His love of STEM subjects led him to found DeadlyScience, an organisation that provides science resources to remote schools in Australia.
Caution! This Book Contains Deadly Reptiles is another way for Tutt to share his love of science. The tactile and colourful front cover of this large non-fiction book has the word Deadly in raised print and almost feels like a snakeskin. It is hard to stop just running your hand over it!
The illustrations by Ben Williams throughout the book are very lifelike. Inside the front and back covers are pictures of nearly all the 68 different reptiles we will find in the book. Even the contents page is clearly set out. Each section heading is written in large red print.
Using the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia (also included on the following page), Tutt has taken the reptiles local to each of the 20 countries included and given us a page of information on each one. Many of us know the European names of these reptiles, but few know what they were called before the white man came.
All reptiles in this book are of course not deadly, as in dangerous, but Deadly, as in cool or awesome.
Before we even get into the vast array of reptiles covered in the book, there are general information pages on turtles, lizards, crocodiles and snakes. From then on, each page tells us where the reptile is found, how they help our ecosystem, what it looks like and eats, its predators, how it breeds and what makes it really cool! The glossary at the end helps with some of the more difficult scientific words.
Caution! This Book Contains Deadly Reptiles is not only able to teach young Indigenous people the names of the reptiles, but is helping them learn their language, strengthen their link with their ancestors and hopefully help to protect the reptiles. But, more importantly, it is a book for everyone who lives on this vast continent and cares about our ecosystem and wants to learn more.
Children who love animals, particularly reptiles, will enjoy this book. At 135 pages, it is one to treasure for a long time, and maybe just pass on to the next generation.
Reviewed by Sue Mauger
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Allen & Unwin
Released: February 2025
RRP: $32.99
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