Animal Snuggles: Affection in the Animal Kingdom

In Animal Snuggles: Affection in the Animal Kingdom, the natural behaviors of 13 adult animals (11 mammals and 2 birds) with their young are viewed anthropomorphically by author Reid, and her perspective is reinforced by illustrator Braun’s Adobe Photoshop somewhat cartoonish art that combines a realistic portrayal of the animals with some human-like qualities, especially in the animals’ facial expressions.

The book has three distinct texts with two of them being found in the main portion of the book. The above Excerpt is taken from the book’s first four spreads, and each line succinctly describes the interaction that is being shown between the adult animal and its young in one of Braun’s illustrations. The book’s cover illustration is quite similar to the opening spread which portrays an otter pup resting on its mother’s stomach, “Belly to belly”. A mare and her foal are “Cheek to cheek”, a kangaroo doe & her joey “hug” “Elbow to elbow”, and a swan and its cygnet “kiss” “Beak to beak”. That this rhyming text is in a larger font than the other text found on the spreads does suggest that it should be read first.

Readers then have the choice of proceeding through the entire book and reading only this larger font text before returning for a second read which then incorporates the secondary text or just dealing with both on a first read. The smaller font text provides a brief explanation of what it is that the children are seeing in Braun’s illustration. For example, with “Belly to belly” and “Beak to beak”, Reid’s text explains:

Sea otter mothers float on their backs and
carry their babies on their bellies.

Parent swans lean in close to
call gently to their babies.

Reid actually closes the principal portion of the book with a twelfth mammal, humans, and Braun’s final spread shows racially diverse parents hugging and cuddling their young children.

Heartbeat to
heartbeat.

Me with you.

A four-page “SNUGGLY ANIMALS” section, the third text, closes out the book, and, in it, Reid expands upon the brief information that she had earlier provided in the book’s secondary text.

For instance:

A baby sea otter, called a pup, is born with fur that
helps it to float in water, A pup can’t swim until
it is about four weeks old, though, so it nestles on
its mother’s belly to ride along while she swims
on her back. When the mom needs to look for food,
she can wrap kelp around her pup so that it doesn’t
float away.

Independent readers will decide for themselves whether or not they will read this information section while adults sharing Animal Snuggles: Affection in the Animal Kingdom with prereaders will need to decide how they will employ its contents.

The contents of Animal Snuggles have a young audience look to them, and, consequently, the book may have a greater appeal to the preschool crowd where the book will be shared in a home setting.