Ostriches

By Rachel Poliquin and Nicholas John Frith

This third installment in the hilarious and highly-illustrated full-color Superpower Field Guide series features the silly-looking, surprisingly fierce Ostrich. This two-toed torpedo may have the largest eyes of any animal on dry land, but it can outrun most horses!

Meet Eno, an ordinary ostrich living in the Serengeti, a corner of the African savanna. But there's something you should know: Even ordinary ostriches are extraordinary. And that includes Eno.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that ostriches are just overgrown chickens with ridiculous necks, skinny legs, and bad attitudes. And you’re right! Believe it or not, that neck helps ostriches run at supersonic speeds. Those skinny legs can kill a lion dead. And these are only a few weapons in Eno's arsenal of superfierce survival skills—Eno has Colossal Orbs of Telescopic Vision, the Impossible Ever-Flow Lung, the Egg of Wonder, and so many more.

You’re still not convinced that ostriches are superpowered, are you? Well, you don’t know ostriches yet. But you will.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780358164371

Rachel Poliquin

Rachel Poliquin is a writer engaged in all things orderly and disorderly in the natural world. With a cross-disciplinary background in visual arts, cultural history and natural history, she holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of British Columbia and a Post-Doctoral Degree in History from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Poliquin is the author of the Superpower Field Guide series, and has also written for Science Friday, The Believer Magazine, and The New York Times. www.rachelpoliquin.com Twitter: @ravishingbeasts Instagram: @rachelpoliquin  

Book preview

For Tobias, of course, and always. —R.P.

To the amazing bird in my life, and our egg of wonder. —N.J.F.

A great big ostrich-size thank you to Dr. John Hutchinson, Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics, Royal Veterinary College, University of London.

Text copyright © 2019 by Rachel Poliquin

Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Nicholas John Frith

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhbooks.com

Cover design by Whitney Leader-Picone

The illustrations in this book were produced using a mixture of black ink, pencil, and wax crayon on paper, in a technique known as preseparation. The artwork was colored digitally.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file.

ISBN: 978-0-544-95040-5 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-358-27266-3 paperback

eISBN 978-0-358-16437-1

v3.0620

THIS AN OSTRICH.

Just an ordinary ostrich.

But even ordinary ostriches are extraordinary. In fact, even ordinary ostriches are superheroes.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that ostriches are just overgrown chickens with ridiculous necks, skinny legs, and bad attitudes.

And you’re right! Believe it or not, that neck helps ostriches run at supersonic speeds. Those skinny legs can kill a lion dead. And that bad attitude? Well now, you can’t be one of the biggest, fastest, fiercest warriors around without having a touch of grumpy swagger.

You’re still not convinced that ostriches are superpowered, are you?

Well, you don’t know ostriches.

But you will.

Meet Eno

MEET ENO, AN ORDINARY OSTRICH. He’s big. He’s grumpy. He has the longest legs and the tiniest head, and you should never, ever underestimate what Eno can do. His superpowers include:

A diagram of an ostrich, with lines pointing to its body parts. A line pointing to the eyes reads: Colossal orbs of telescopic vision (That means Eno has really big eyeballs). A line pointing to the thighs reads: Thighs of Thunder. A line pointing to the toenails reads: Toe Claws of Death. A line pointing to the lower legs reads: Super-Fantastic Elastic Striders. A line pointing to the toes reads: Two-Toed Torepedoes. A line pointing to the wings reads: Do-it-all Dino Flaps. A line pointing to an egg next to the ostrich reads: The Egg of Wonder. There are labels called The Impossible Ever-Flow Lung, Epic Endurance, and Hydro-Hoarding Heat Shield, but they do not have lines associated with them.

Are you ready? Are you brave enough? Because this battle bird is built ferociously fierce! Unfathomably fast! So take a deep breath. It’s time to meet ENO, SUPERSONIC SURVIVOR!

Eno has Horrible Feet

THE FIRST THING YOU NEED TO KNOW about Eno is that he has horrible feet. They’re scabby and rough with scaly plates down his toes. He only has two toes on each foot, and they are both horrible. His big toe has a giant black toenail that’s longer than a grizzly bear’s claw. His other toe is just a knob on the side of his foot. It doesn’t have a toenail, and it’s ugly.

I know it’s not nice to say such things. But look at that foot—you know it’s true! Besides, I think Eno is proud of his horrible feet. Those feet are survivor feet, and they save his life every day in one of the toughest, hottest, fiercest places on the planet.

You see, Eno lives in part of the African savanna, in Tanzania. Although it is a beautiful place, it can also be a terrible place. In the dry season, the hot sun bakes the ground until it cracks. Water can be hard to find, and Eno might go days, even weeks, without a drink. But water isn’t Eno’s only problem. The savanna is also home to lions, cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas—some of the hungriest, wildest, fastest predators on earth.

A map of Africa, highlighting the savanna which stretches across a large portion of the continent, and within the savanna, in southeast part of the continent, is the country Tanzania.

Most birds can fly away if they see a lion prowling. Ostriches can’t fly. But it doesn’t matter. Eno’s horrible feet are actually TWO-TOED TORPEDOES. And those nasty black toenails? TOE CLAWS OF DEATH!

And it’s not just his feet—everything about Eno is ferocious.

Did I hear you ask,