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Top 10 Worst
The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet
Which frog uses poison to protect itself? What’s more deadly: a mosquito or a crocodile? Find out in Top Ten Worst Killer Animals. Filled with nasty creatures you certainly wouldn’t want to meet, this book features advice on how to avoid a shark attack and how to combat a mosquito attack, amongst other fascinating facts and vital statistics.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2010
About the author
Fiona Macdonald
655 books45 followersFiona Macdonald studied history at Cambridge University and at the University of East Anglia. She has taught in schools, adult education and university, and is the author of numerous books for children on historical topics.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 6, 2024
So yes, I to a certain point and gladly appreciate that Fiona MacDonald does in her 2010 picture book The Top Ten Worst Animals You Wouldn’t Want to Meet specifically point out that for many animal species that are considered to be a possible threat to and for us, they actually often seem to face far more issues and problems emanating from humans than we collectively face from them (and that she, that Fiona MacDonald also and in my opinion pretty well truthfully considers mosquitoes as the most potentially dangerous and lethal animal for humanity as a whole).
But to be perfectly honest, there are in my opinion far too many niggling textual issues with regard to The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet for me to consider rating this here book with more than two stars maximum. For one, the book title of The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet (at least for and to me) feels rather unnecessarily judgmental, condemning and makes it even appear as though the ten featured “dangerous” animal examples are somehow seen by author Fiona MacDonald as deliberately and even criminally stalking and threatening human beings, when this is generally speaking not at all the case, since animals are mostly venomous or exhibit predatory behaviour in order to either protect themselves or to find sufficient food to survive (and of course to successfully reproduce). And for two, while Fiona MacDonald of course (as already briefly alluded to above) rather attempts to rehabilitate the sordid reputations of some of the diverse creatures presented and described in The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet, from my personal reading and from where I am standing, this is all done at best rather half-heartedly, so that upon finding the information on for example sharks, cobras and wolves, sorry, but it still feels as though with the creatures she has included in The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet, Fiona MacDonald kind of continues to want her readers not only to tread prudently but to also majorly fear and even despise these animals as species, not to mention that the absence of any type of bibliography is equally a pretty major bone of contention and definitely quite lessens the educational value and potential of Fiona MacDonald’s text.
Furthermore and finally, for me there are also aesthetic problems with the accompanying illustrations for The Top Yen Worst Animals You Wouldn’t Want to Meet, since David Antram’s artwork, while bright, cheery and occasionally even mildly humorous also shows especially with his renderings of polar bears, sharks, lions, wolves, alligators, cobras, and hippopotamuses that he, that Antram obviously visually desires to mostly focus his and our attention on gaping teeth and fangs, on how potentially dangerous these animals supposedly and generally are and look (and yes, even though Fiona MacDonald repeatedly lets her readers know that in the majority of cases, the described “dangerous” animal species encountered in The Top 10 Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet often will ignore humans if they are left alone, the combination of text and images does for me kind of give a rather different and much more negative impression and perspective).
But to be perfectly honest, there are in my opinion far too many niggling textual issues with regard to The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet for me to consider rating this here book with more than two stars maximum. For one, the book title of The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet (at least for and to me) feels rather unnecessarily judgmental, condemning and makes it even appear as though the ten featured “dangerous” animal examples are somehow seen by author Fiona MacDonald as deliberately and even criminally stalking and threatening human beings, when this is generally speaking not at all the case, since animals are mostly venomous or exhibit predatory behaviour in order to either protect themselves or to find sufficient food to survive (and of course to successfully reproduce). And for two, while Fiona MacDonald of course (as already briefly alluded to above) rather attempts to rehabilitate the sordid reputations of some of the diverse creatures presented and described in The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet, from my personal reading and from where I am standing, this is all done at best rather half-heartedly, so that upon finding the information on for example sharks, cobras and wolves, sorry, but it still feels as though with the creatures she has included in The Top Ten Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet, Fiona MacDonald kind of continues to want her readers not only to tread prudently but to also majorly fear and even despise these animals as species, not to mention that the absence of any type of bibliography is equally a pretty major bone of contention and definitely quite lessens the educational value and potential of Fiona MacDonald’s text.
Furthermore and finally, for me there are also aesthetic problems with the accompanying illustrations for The Top Yen Worst Animals You Wouldn’t Want to Meet, since David Antram’s artwork, while bright, cheery and occasionally even mildly humorous also shows especially with his renderings of polar bears, sharks, lions, wolves, alligators, cobras, and hippopotamuses that he, that Antram obviously visually desires to mostly focus his and our attention on gaping teeth and fangs, on how potentially dangerous these animals supposedly and generally are and look (and yes, even though Fiona MacDonald repeatedly lets her readers know that in the majority of cases, the described “dangerous” animal species encountered in The Top 10 Worst Killer Animals You Wouldn't Want to Meet often will ignore humans if they are left alone, the combination of text and images does for me kind of give a rather different and much more negative impression and perspective).
December 21, 2012
We've read many of the books in the You Wouldn't Want To... series and our girls just love them. We just discovered this Top 10 Worst... series, too, and we were happy to note that the author/illustrator/series creator have collaborated on both.
This is a fascinating book, filled with ten different animals that have the potential to be deadly to humans. The book describes each in some detail, although the information provided about each topic is relatively short and would not be comprehensive enough to base a report on. But the stories are interesting, explaining why each animal is so deadly and how likely a person is to come across such a creature.
Our oldest discovered this book, along with several other similar ones at her elementary school library and I am excited to read them all. I love that our girls get excited to read nonfiction books. I thought they were all tedious and boring when I was young (and for the most part, I think they were!)
This is a fascinating book, filled with ten different animals that have the potential to be deadly to humans. The book describes each in some detail, although the information provided about each topic is relatively short and would not be comprehensive enough to base a report on. But the stories are interesting, explaining why each animal is so deadly and how likely a person is to come across such a creature.
Our oldest discovered this book, along with several other similar ones at her elementary school library and I am excited to read them all. I love that our girls get excited to read nonfiction books. I thought they were all tedious and boring when I was young (and for the most part, I think they were!)
December 25, 2010
For reluctant readers, this book will be a nice introduction to the joy of learning to read. Filled with nice illustrations, young readers will learn the various animals that threaten humans each and every day. The author does a nice job of giving the reader just enough information to make the book resourceful yet still entertaining. A nice intro book for young readers. The cover will grab their attention!
May 5, 2021
I think it was really interesting to find that some of the animals on this list were not what I expected! I had no idea that rats or mosquitos were so deadly!
March 12, 2014
Good writing, great art that really drew the kids in. This is possibly too scary for some kids, and it certainly lead the kids to believe that Australia is way too dangerous.
April 21, 2014
You and Simon were both shocked when you got to the end to find that the number one top killer animals was... the mosquito!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews