I don't read a lot about hyenas...so let's change that. Here's a neat little non-fiction.
This is a non-fiction about hyenas intended for younger readers. It covers (among other things) hyena species, habitat, behavior, growth and development and hunting habits.
Yeah, a solid non-fiction. This is (as far as I know) the only hyena non-fiction book my library owns, so I don't have a lot of stuff to compare it to unlike my children's non-fiction wolf book reviews, but I'd still say that this one is solid.
It's a short but comprehensive book with the basic information about hyenas, as mentioned above. It's also nicely dressed with a playful layout and lots of photos to keep the reader engaged. The text is short and to the point but gets the point across well this way. I also don't think I really spotted (pun intended) a lot of misinformation here, since hyenas do have some nasty and wrong stereotypes about them that a lot of media featuring them seems to lean into (such as the idea that they're primarily lazy scavengers; spotted hyenas at least hunt just as much if not more than lions).
But this book just took a neutral look at the animals, which I appreciate. I think maybe it'd have been nice if there'd been a chapter section where the book actually dispelled some common hyena stereotypes or irrational fears (since they are among the animals with the worst reputations), but otherwise I feel we got all the content we needed for a book about these animals for this age demographic.
I also really appreciate how the author didn't just delve into spotted hyenas, which are by far the most well-known species. The book does primarily talk about them, but usually for each section where they talk about spotted hyenas first they'll have a short paragraph with additions about the other hyena species regarding said subject (e.g. what they eat). So while we do get our spotted hyena knowledge, the book doesn't overlook the other species, either. I was really afraid that they were just going to be mentioned only in the "species" section and then overlooked for the rest of the book, but they're actually decently talked about, albeit not as much as their spotted cousins. Still nice that the author bothered to include information on their smaller cousins, however!
So overall a good book. It looks good, but more importantly the information is sufficient and it doesn't buy into common hyena stereotypes, plus it has a nice balance of featuring each species (with the balance leaning slightly more towards spotteds).
Rating: 4/5
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