A creative comparison of humans to other vertebrates points out similarities and differences by imagining how we'd look with added bones in our spine (a tail) or without arm or leg bones (just like a snake). If our finger bones grew so long that they reached our feet, we'd resemble bats, and really big neck vertebrae would make the human form closer to that of giraffes. Information about a host of animals will be painlessly absorbed because of the clever concept in which it is presented, amped up by humorous illustrations showing children with the structural modifications described in the text, the most memorable of which is a human body sans bones-essentially a puddle of skin and a pair of unanchored eyeballs. (Ages 4-8)