I was quite excited to read this book, but was unfortunately disappointed with the end result. The wordiness of the book, (including numerous typos,) with a layout that is hard to follow hold it back from being a bestseller. The concept and facts hidden inside are really quite interesting!

3.5/5 rounded up to 4

A really fun non-fic book for children (probably older children) on how humans are inspired by non-human animals to develop certain technologies.

The text is straightforward and informative, and the illustrations are really cute and fun. The Namib beetle was probably my favourite. It's also very vocal about climate change and other environmental issues.

In terms of the negatives, it was really too busy at times with text and illustration. Many spreads are just visually overwhelming, taking away from both text and illustrations. It's also not always clear where you're meant to go next in the text. A bit weak on the design front in my opinion and a good example of more not always being more.

It's also depressing reading this as an adult and realising that far from using these technologies for noble purposes like the book states (medicine, measures against climate change), first and foremost they'll be used for military purposes, hah.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Invented by Animals is a beautifully illustrated children's book which is light and easy to read and listen to and gives some fantastic information to children about each animal/insect/fish/creature.
Each animal has a two page spread and has information about who they are, how they're inspiring humans, what humans are trying to achieve from them and much more!
I would love this book to be part of a series and a second book idea could be of how these animals have evolved to be what they are.
A very interesting and fun read for children!

Invented by Animals: Meet the Creatures who Inspired our Everyday Technology, written by Christiane Dorion and illustrated by Gosia Herba, is a children's nonfiction book. Often human scientists try and solve a problem or invent a new tool and they realize that animals have already invented it for them. In this book you will meet the animal inventors who have shared their super inventing powers to make amazing things for humans. Meet the shark who invented a pair of swimming shorts so fast, they were banned from the Olympic games. And meet the snail who has invented a house that stays cool inside even in the desert.

Invented by Animals is a book that offers readers insight about how animals and nature have inspired inventions and innovation. Many of the facts and stories were something I had read or heard part of before, while some of the information was new to me. I thought the pages were well designed- with small sections of text and plenty of bright illustrations to capture the attention and imagination of readers. The information was well worded, so that it was never condescending nor too complex so the book can appeal to a wide range of readers. This was an interesting and engaging read that would be equally welcome in school, classroom, and personal libraries.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of Invented by Animals. This was a fun and interesting read, with cute and original illustrations. One concern would be the large amount of information presented may be daunting to young readers, but the illustrations and language may present the book as too childish for older kids. Nevertheless, the great variety of animals and facts are presented as well as the appealing presentation make this a quality addition to any library's juvenile non-fiction collection.

All these times, I thought that human beings are truly excelled above all those animals. How smart we are, creating things. But, alas, not everything was thought and created from human minds. For surviving the world, some animals created things that were copied by human beings.

So here we are with a self-air-conditioned house, a cardboard material, and defying gravity, for example. And those are created based on some animals ability to keep on living in the harsh world.

One good book to read, and learn and maybe invent some ideas never been thought before.

A quirky, fun and informative non-fiction book for any keen animal lovers! Invented by Animals covers a broad range of species that have inspired scientists and inventors over the year.

Invented by Animals by Christiane Dorion is a book chockfull of information, much of it fascinating, but its abundance of text and layout make for a less than ideal reading experience.

Each page is a single creature speaking directly to the reader about several of their particular attributes, one of which is the inspiration for human products (either already created or in the development/research stage). The octopus speaks of its mimicry, the gecko of its ability to grip surfaces, the penguin of its personal waterproofing and so on. Products range from better waterproof fabrics (penguins) to water collectors (Namib beetles) to tiny search and rescue drones (dragonflies). All in all roughly 40 creatures make an appearance (most getting their own page, with some sharing a page, such as the “master builders” (beavers, termites, bees).

As noted, there is a lot of fascinating material here. Maybe too much. The text takes up a lot of space and unfortunately, the movement from paragraph to paragraph isn’t always intuitive. Even after picking up how to read it I still would sometimes instinctively move my eyes elsewhere at the start of a page. The artwork, meanwhile, is brightly cheerful, with semi-accurate but anthropomorphized illustrations of the creatures. But again, there’s a lot going on visually, and it struck me as too busy, especially in combination with the text. Honestly, while I thought it highly informative, I think I would have preferred about half the creatures and a cleaner, sleeker look both visually and textually

Because of the business of the visuals, the amount and layout of the text, and some of the vocabulary, I’d call this a book more for “older younger” readers, more 4-5 than K-3.
3.5 rating

So engaging and wonderfully illustrated!
Many of earth’s most innovative inventions were inspired by nature - and what a great way to learn of them all with “Invented by Animals’! There is really no page where I didn’t learn a new fact - so I can only imagine all the facts and information to be discovered by a child! The illustrations are delightful and each page is dedicated to a different animal or insect.
This title is an excellent addition to any home or school library, and sure to be a fast favorite.

I requested and received an advance readers copy from Quarto Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you so much!

Awesome .. I really love the concept and idea of this book. Knowledge about special animals who inspiring human to developing amazing inventions and solve tricky problems.

With cute illustration and fun language to explaining, my kid totally love it. The chance to know about what animals represent as master disguise, super zoom vision, master builder or an expert paper maker totally intriguing them nonstop.

This book explores how technology has been influenced by the abilities discovered in animals. Scientists and others have studied animals and adapted things they have observed to assist in the development of many inventions enjoyed by humans.

Overall, it’s not a bad book. However, it is important to be aware that the author includes messages on global warming, climate change, and evolutionary theory that have nothing to do with the animals’ abilities being discussed. This is something to consider whether purchasing the book for personal use or as a gift.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by the publisher and Net Galley but the thoughts expressed are my own.

A wonderfully-, playfully-, thoughtfully-constructed look at the way inventors, scientists, and others have borrowed and learned from a wide variety of animals to create skin care products, clothing, structures, repairs, eco-friendly materials, and more!

I used this as science material when homeschooling! I have two boys, ages 4 and 9 who loved this book so much. We did a few pages a day and they actually talked about how they would invent something useful from another animal of their choice not listed in the book. This was a great book with wonderful images and fun facts that keep children interested in learning more about these amazing animals.

Many of our planets’ most innovative inventions were inspired by nature. “Invented by Animals: Meet the Creatures who Inspired our Everyday Technology” looks at some of the animals that have inspired these inventions. These inventions include superfast swimwear, drones, surgical glue, and sonar. This book is filled with a variety of anthropomorphic narrators who discuss how the adaptations that help them survive in the wild have inspired scientists. The pages are brightly colored and filled with interesting, if randomly placed, facts.

Independent readers will enjoy looking at the pictures and reading about this interesting collection of animals. This book will find a home in public and school libraries, but educators will have a hard time incorporating this book into the classroom. The placement of “thought bubbles” is random, and there is no text that unifies the book. It is almost unusable as a classroom read-aloud. This book is also not recommended as a tie-in to the science curriculum. Although “Invented by Animals” has a table of contents and an index of the animals mentioned, it is lacking other important nonfiction elements; there isn’t a bibliography, a glossary, a listing of resources for further investigation, or any pictures of the wondrous animals described in the book.

I would still recommend Invented by animals for students’ personal reading. The attractive layout, and the basic facts that are included, might prompt a child to learn more about these animals or the steps involved with inventing new products. This is a recommended purchase for elementary school and public libraries.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.


Hide entire review because of spoilers

This was beautiful and vibrant in a vivid blend of science and art! My kids enjoyed learning about different animals and the animals and facts were quite varied and entertaining!

Invented by Animals by Christiane Dorion is a fascinating reference that focuses on amazing, unique abilities in a huge variety of animals. It is a wonderfully illustrated book that combines genres like science and art in an accessible way. Each short section focuses on a different animal and ability, such as language, flight, building, ability to grow back body parts, etc. Each page features vibrant, fun illustrations and would be best for children in later elementary school and middle school. Even adults will find this fun and informative!

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group – Wide Eyed Editions and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This book is brilliant!

It's humorous and extremely educating!

As an adult I found many interesting and unknown facts for myself!

Each animal introduces themselves in a funny manner and explain how they inspired humans in certain achievements!

This book is parent + child friendly. Whole family will have fun reading it!

I absolutely loved this. It’s for a slightly older audience than my kid, so we read it in small chunks together over a few days. The illustrations are super cool, I love love loved them, and I was totally surprised by some of the info in here!!

I have never come across a book quite like this one. There are lots of books about cool animal facts, but this one was presented in a really attractive and modern way, which I really appreciated.

Will probably pick up a copy!

A well-meaning book for school libraries, and a bit of a success at that, but one that also was a bit of a missed opportunity. Each page we get a different creature pointing out their unique abilities, so the eagle is there to boast of their superlative eyesight (a human atop a ten storey building could watch an ant if we had the same talent, scaled up), and a gecko is there to talk about how he can lick his own eyeball. Well, no, not really, as his ability to walk up walls and across the ceiling is the key. These are examples of animals besting human ingenuity, but also where we have borrowed some of Mother Nature's ideas and learnt to think along the same lines for our own inventions. So a chameleonic octopus might teach us how to adapt textile properties, and so on.

All well and good – it's nice to meet lots of critters and see how remarkable they are. But the writing can leave out all the important bits, so we get told a squid's teeth are self-repairing, but never how. And as for the writing, sometimes the design means it's nigh impossible to work out which paragraph to read in which order. To my mind, with double-page spreads like these, the grammar is to start top left and read the entire spread as if it was one page. Not so here. Even digitally you have to respect the centre-fold, so read paragraph one, then work out that number two is that bit right down at the bottom, and reading the bit in the middle of the facing leaf is then third.

Also, I've said this before and it looks like I'll have to say it again – there is so much wonderful, intriguing nature on these pages, and not one single word about how any of this animal ingenuity evolved. I was taking the mickey when I said it was down to Mother Nature – there's no such thing, and evolution is responsible. I can only guess the creationist cults make up such a strong pressure group that books like this can only include the small page needed to explain evolution at their peril. But all that that means is that the young reader here gets half the science, and half the picture. What with that, and the generally, needlessly jumbled design, even if this can link kingfishers with train streamlining technology, this gets at most three and a half stars.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
This is so well put together. I loved all the different animals and the facts that were presented. It was beautiful and engaging and would be a great resource along side an animal study or just to read on by itself.