100 Deadliest Things on the Planet (100 Most...)
This book could easily be confused with the author’s 100 Scariest Things on the Planet (2011) and 100 Most Dangerous Things on the Planet (2008) as there is a fair amount of overlap in topical contents. Nonetheless, this series entry offers thrill seekers fresh cautionary notes on a batch of natural catastrophes and bad-news beasties. Pairing small color photos—some of which are gory or graphic—with bite-size remarks, Claybourne explains to readers why it would be good to avoid certain creatures, from the tsetse fly and deathstalker scorpion to an array of poisonous snakes and sea creatures, aggressive big cats, and killer plants. She also covers deadly diseases, from leprosy to the black death, and closes with the potentially world-altering events: eruptions, solar flares, and meteor “impact events.” Arranged in no particular order within broad chapters, the entries in this lurid, loudly colored browsing item each come with a danger rating, if not such niceties as source notes or leads to further information. Grades 4-7. --John Peters