The Ugly Five

Certain animals seem to be the work of Mother Nature on an off day. Here, frequent collaborators Donaldson and Scheffler (The Gruffalo) showcase the wildebeest, the spotted hyena, the lappet-faced vulture, the warthog, and the marabou stork. One by one, they come together for a stroll on a savannah, owning the word ugly with pride. “My legs, long and skinny, are covered in poo,” the stork says. “And I’ll eat almost anything, even a shoe.” Scheffler, in a departure from his usual anthropomorphized characters, clearly had fun with these more realistic, warts-and-all portrayals: his hyena, for example, talks to readers with a mouth full of bloody bones from a fresh kill. Still, there’s something endearingly human about the characters’ confident self-awareness and easy camaraderie, a winning liveliness in their eyes. Readers won’t be totally surprised when the final pages reveal that the Ugly Five have some very big fans: their own very cute babies (“You give us our food/ And help cheer us up when we’re in a bad mood”). It’s a welcome twist on the expression “a face only a mother could love,” and a heartwarming tribute to the child side of the parent-child bond. Ages 4–8. [em](July) [/em]