Reviews

Your Pets Secret Lives: the Truth Behind Your Pets' Wildest Behaviors by Eleanor Spicer Rice

leashell's review

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

Our family received a review copy of "Your Pets' Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pet's Wildest Behaviors" by Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice and Illustrated by Rob Wilson. This is the second book in the "Your Hidden Life" series and it is such a great compliment to the first book in the series, "Unseen Jungle: The Microbes That Secretly Control Our World," which focuses on microbes. The accessible, comedic writing is enhanced by the illustrations which make all of the fact-packed pages shine. Our family especially loved the many connections there were to real researchers studying animals! We also loved how many stories there were about each different pet that were new and interesting to us! This book is also fitting for a family read aloud, for a classroom, a homeschool environment, a Veterinary waiting room, or the like. It would especially make a great gift for a middle grade child who has pets or who is interested in getting one. 

This book explains the common animal behaviors of popular pets like cats and dogs, but also helps solve the mysteries of why gerbils can't stop digging and even, surprisingly, that some fish change their appearance when they sleep! I'll never think that fish make boring pets -- they are so much more interesting than I realized! We also learned all the details about why our pet rabbit eats his own poop! There are also excellent recommendations to readers who want to learn more about certain topics covered in the book so the learning can continue. Can't recommend this enough for any young person curious about animal behavior!