Taken with quirky science questions children (and adults) might ask, Kuhns wrote “Do Birds Sneeze?” which focuses on the natural world and encourages kids to ask their own investigative questions. Questions abound and that has led to a second science book, “Why Do Bats Hang Upside Down?: Still More … Fantastical Questions” ($13.95 in paperback, independently published).
Full color, full-page illustrations by Steven Kistler add whimsy to the questions, like “What makes your nose itch?”, “How high does a thermometer go?”, “Do chickens faint?”, and “What makes people stink?” (hint: bacteria mixing with sweat).
There are also more down-to-earth queries, like “Why do cats and dogs lose their hair?” “Shedding,” Kuhns writes, “is a normal part of life for animals. Shedding helps to remove dead hair and release natural oils in the skin to keep them healthy. If dead hair does not get removed, the skin can become irritated.”
“Do birds sleep?” “Yes. But have you ever heard of sleeping with one eye open? Usually that is how birds sleep, with one eye open and with half of their brain awake…. This adaptation or way of sleeping is called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep and keeps birds safe.” When it’s dark and quiet birds “can sleep deeper with both eyes closed and both halves of their brains resting.”
On to bats. “The problem with flying for bats is that they are too heavy to take off from a standing or motionless position. This is called ‘the ratio of weight to lift capacity of the wing.’ Phew … that’s a mouthful. To make up for the bat’s inability to jump up and fly like a bird, Mother Nature (evolution) decided to hang them upside-down so they could drop from a branch and just start flapping.”
A page at the end invites readers to write their own fantastical questions—and then to research and find the answers.
