My Presentation Today is about the Anaconda

"Hello, I'm the earthworm, and today I'm giving my talk about the anaconda."

Who needs another book by humans? All they do is make us animals super boring. They only look at things through their own eyes. Every, single, time. Human after human. Kid after kid. Class after class. YAWN!

This is a book of oral presentations given by us animals, for us animals, and about us animals. The cleaner fish will talk about his friend the shark and his sharp teeth. The zebra will get to tell you about all the black-and-white animals in the world. The mole knows everything there is to know about the daddy longlegs. The southern cassowa—yes, fox? What is it? Yes, you'll get to talk about geese. Huh? Yes, you'll get to talk about how delicious they are.

Anyway, we're giving you twenty presentations from another twenty of us, but there's a lot more crammed in. And you know what, we did talk, and there's at least one human who's OK by us—Annemarie van Haeringen. She drew some portraits of us for this book and we gotta say, the likenesses are pretty good. Check it all out!

Bibi Dumon Tak writes nonfiction, or as she calls it: the truth in stories. Most of those stories are about animals. And all those stories are true. They are about cows that have escaped from slaughter; about animals that help people in times of war; about birds, arctic animals, uncuddly animals, cloven-hoofed animals, city animals. She has no preferences. As long as it can crawl, fly, swim, or run; as long as it has fur, scales, spines, or feathers. As long as they aren’t people. Dumon Tak has won the Gouden Griffel, the highest honor for children’s books in the Netherlands, as well as the Theo Thijssen Prize, the highest honor for authors. Two books of hers, Soldier Bear and Mikis and the Donkey, have won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award.

Author residence: Zuiderwoude, Netherlands

Annemarie van Haeringen is a leading Dutch illustrator and author. She has illustrated numerous children’s books and worked on films and children’s magazines. She has won the Gouden Penseel—the highest honor for children’s illustration in the Netherlands—three times, and her books have been published in more than twenty-five languages.

Illustrator residence: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Nancy Forest-Flier is an American-born translator and editor living and working in the Netherlands. She has translated several adult and children’s novels from Dutch to English as well as books of historical nonfiction. She has also translated for numerous Dutch museums and institutes including the Anne Frank House. She has six children and ten grandchildren.

Translator residence: Netherlands