Talk, Talk, Squawk!: A Human's Guide to Animal Communications (review)

Davies and Layton have been roaming fearlessly through the animal kingdom for several amusing and informative volumes now, starting with Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable (BCCB 9/04); as excellent communicators themselves, they have finally, unsurprisingly, turned to the topic of communication. The book covers forms of communication, from visual ("Uniforms are a very simple type of signal that says 'one of us'") to olfactory ("Any beaver without the family stink will get chased out of the lodge!") to auditory ("Sound travels four times faster in water than in air, so sound is a really good way of sending messages underwater"). There's also an overview of the kinds of messages animals are inclined to send, such as "Where are you?" and "I am gorgeous!" Particularly interesting to young readers will be the exploration of message mimicry, with safe animals copying dangerous ones and vice versa, and the communication balance such fakery requires ("If this kind of lying got too common everyone would lose out"). While this is breaking less new ground than the previous titles, it's a tasty overview of a broad and complicated subject, and the distillation into bite-size pieces of introductory information, all rooted strongly in specific example, will be welcome to even tentative young biologists. The format is familiar from Davies and Layton's previous outings, with art amiably noodling around the text, comic-book panel narratives popping up, and general irreverence the order of the artistic day, but Layton embraces color with new verve here, throwing in lively patterns and photocollage elements that spice up his doodly linework. This goes smack into the biology curriculum, but it could also make an unexpected appearance in language arts, and it'll be a draw for reluctant pleasure readers. An index and brief glossary are appended.