Sad Animal Facts

By Brooke Barker

The New York Times bestseller.

A delightfully quirky compendium of the Animal Kingdom's more unfortunate truths, with over 150 hand-drawn illustrations to make you laugh and cry.

Have you ever wondered how expensive a jar of honey would be if a minimum wage for bees applied, or whether a dog cares what's on television when they sit next to you? Once you enter Brooke Barker's world, you'll never see animals in the same way again.

This melancholy menagerie pairs the sweet and sad facts of animal life with their hilarious thoughts and reactions. Sneakily informative, and beautifully illustrated, Sad Animal Facts by Brooke Barker is the perfect book for animal lovers (and haters) everywhere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Sep 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9780752265964

Brooke Barker

Brooke Barker is a writer and illustrator who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her successful Instagram account became the basis for her book, Sad Animal Facts. Her favourite animal is the Malayan tapir.

Reviews for Sad Animal Facts

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Turtles breath out their butts.”So, in my opinion of the above, they weren’t all sad facts!The facts are divided into categories - Reptiles and Amphibians, Mammals, Marsupials, Cetaceans and Pinnipeds, Fish, Birds, Insects and Arachnids, Miscellaneous Invertebrates, and an Appendix with little paragraphs about the facts. Each fact has a cute illustration with clever quotes by the animal. It’s super cute, and quite informative! Funny too! As I said, they really aren’t all sad! Like...“Herrings communicate with farts.”and...“Hippos attract mates by peeing.”‘Nuff said!

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Each page has a "sad" animal fact illustrated by a humorous and sometimes pathetic cartoon drawing. Some of the facts will give readers double-takes ("A chipmunk can't recognize its face in a mirror"); fortunately the appendix provides a brief background for each of the facts. (The animals are listed alphabetically in the appendix along with their sad fact but without page references, so readers will have to know how each animal is classified in order to refer back to the cartoon.) The book appears aimed at adults but kids would certainly appreciate "Turtles breathe out their butts." But maybe not so much "If a female ferret goes into heat and doesn't mate she will die."

[yonitdm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very cute to read! Great facts and illustrations

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes I blurt out random facts to astonished people. (We'll pretend their astonishment is at the sheer amount of bizarre but fascinating knowledge I have rather than at my complete social awkwardness.) I don't know why I retain these random facts but they cheerfully take up something like 90% of my available brain space. I am rather addicted to them and to the books that contain them so when I saw this appealing little book at the cash wrap at the bookstore, it was a foregone conclusion that I'd pick it up and take it home with me.This is very much a gift book. Each page has a brightly colored, basic, hand drawn cartoons of an animal sharing something unknown about its species. Sometimes the fact is sad (if we anthropomorphize) but sometimes its just a fascinating little tidbit about one of the critters with whom we share this planet. Each of the facts is scientifically proven, which will leaving you wondering why science tested certain things in the first place (why did we need to know herrings communicate through farting, that turtles breathe through their butts, that squirrels can't burp, or that dwarf lemurs line their homes with feces?), and the alphabetical index in the back of the book offers more information on each fact. Lest you think there are only gross 12 year old boy type facts in the book (although don't pretend you didn't enjoy reading them just now and aren't going to use them at your next company party because you definitely are), there are also facts about sleeping habits, eating habits, species empathy, and more as well. The illustrations are cute, the facts Barker has chosen to illustrate are interesting (and only a few of them are common knowledge), and the book is a delightful little book to dip in and out of. As a side note, it is also very appealingly constructed, with smooth glossy pages and a heavy feel in your hands. Highly recommended if you too need new gems for your small talk repertoire.

[katielibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Too funny. what a fun book!

[obtusata · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very amusing little book. Bonus: it includes an appendix with more explanations of the facts in each comic - so you have fun and learn something!

[rekki-281232 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very funny and informative <3