ALA Booklist (Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Each double-page spread in this colorful picture book asks a question, leading off with, "Do you like to dance?" The cheerful illustration shows children cavorting at a party. The next spread offers a link to the animal kingdom: "Honeybees do, too!" Accompanied by a large-scale picture, a paragraph explains how bees dance to communicate the location and distance of a food source. Kaner explains that piggyback riding, babysitting, playing tag, and blowing bubbles are also animal activities with specific purposes. For example, kids play leapfrog for fun, while cattle egrets use it as a technique for catching insects, taking turns leaping in tall grasses to stir up insects for those they leap over to catch and eat. Just as people grow food in their gardens, leaf-cutter ants carry leaves into their underground nests, chew the leaves into a mush, and later eat the white fungus that grows on the mush. The examples are well chosen, and the explanations clear and succinct. Illustrated with watercolor paintings, this is a playful introduction to the fascinating topic of animal behavior.

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Analogies between animal and human behavior are meant to help readers understand how animals act and why. Honeybees dance, gazelles play tag, leaf-cutter ants grow food for themselves. Pages depicting children in family activities alternate with pages illustrating similar animal actions, with paragraphs explaining the reasons for each behavior. Full-bleed, sometimes goofy watercolor illustrations supplement the text.

Kirkus Reviews

Animals and people share behaviors. "Do you like to dance? // Honeybees do, too!" On a series of paired double-page spreads, Kaner invites young readers and listeners to connect to the animal world through a series of similar activities: dancing, playing tag or leapfrog, blowing bubbles, gardening, riding piggy-back, and being babysat. Each animal activity is described in a paragraph of exposition including both the how and the why. Examples come from around the world and include honeybees, gazelles, cattle egrets, gray tree frogs, leafcutter ants, marmosets, and flamingos. Two pages of simple backmatter add additional facts, including the continents on which the animals can be found. Faucher's watercolor illustrations show smiling animals in appropriate habitats (though not always to scale with their environments) and cheerful people with varying hair and skin colors. Many show family activities: children with caregivers picking apples in an orchard; working and picnicking in what might be a neighborhood garden; a man bathing a small boy; a woman serving cookies to playing children. A pregnant woman suns herself on a beach while children play around her. There are further interesting details in each illustration, enough to keep young readers looking. Each of the human pictures also includes a smiling cat or dog. Not an essential but still an appealing addition to an animal shelf. (Informational picture book. 3-6)

School Library Journal (Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

PreS-Gr 2The purpose of this clever, playful concept book is to teach young children about human and animal behavior through a question-and-answer format. Readers will easily make text-to-self connections as the provided facts are related to familiar human activities. Kaner begins by asking, "Do you dance?" and then makes similar inquiries about playing tag, blowing bubbles, enjoying piggyback rides, having a babysitter, and more. She then reveals that honeybees, gazelles, gray tree frogs, marmosets, flamingos, and others perform similar actions (e.g., honeybees dance to communicate with one another). Faucher's watercolor illustrations are imbued with color and depict smiling families and friendly-looking creatures. Additional material about the covered subjects is also included at the end. VERDICT Perfect for kids who treasure little-known, surprising information, and a great option for collections in need of light nonfiction.Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT