The Ugly Five

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There would be lots of ways to incorporate The Ugly Five into teaching. It would fit beautifully into any topic work on Africa or animals, particularly looking at how animals are suited to their habitats and the idea of food chains - both the vulture and the hyena are seen scavenging - and also how animals grow. Marabou storks are also attracted to grass fires, and will move in front of an advancing fire to grab fleeing animals. Shy five include the meerkat, aardvark, porcupine, aardwolf, and the cute looking bat-eared fox. UGLY 5. Yet for better or worse, these five have earned themselves an unfortunate place in the official Ugly Five listing. Recently years a bit more attention has been given to other animals, again in the form of ‘fives’. However, the list is just created by Safari guides and conservationists who wanted people to give a look at other more elusive animal species in Africa’s wilderness. BIG 5.

So which animals are considered so unsightly that they deserve their own little club? Turns out the members are mostly of the scavenging variety – vultures, marabou storks and hyenas. One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. There are strong PSHE messages about celebrating everyone as they are and not judging on appearance. Many of the children commented on how important it was to love everyone, no matter what they look like. The book would also be a good starting point for a discussion on family and love within the family. As a faith school, we could then expand this further to discuss the concept of how we are all unique and yet loved by God.

I see Julia’s point. These animals aren’t on my list to see either. Still, I’m glad they have a book about them and a little bit of love thrown their way. The rhymes are great and this is a beautiful book. Due to the rhyming nature of the story it is a great read aloud book. The repetition allows the children to join in with any repeated refrains and encourages them to notice and predict the rhyming words at the end of each sentence. Therefore could be used with Nursery children or lower Key Stage 1. Everyone enjoyed hearing about the Marabou stork, which poos on its legs - apparently to cool itself down - and there was fascination about exactly what the meat was that the hyena and the vulture were eating. One nature-documentary watching child thought that the answer would not please the wildebeest. Would this be a good book to read aloud to the class or would it be good for Shared or guided reading?

Curiously, warthogs are omnivorous, meaning they can eat both vegetation and meat. Their diet consists mostly of grass, bulbs, and roots, but they will occasionally scavenge for meat scraps. Who would have thought? An Unsightly Summary of The Ugly 5 Think about how the different animals move. Could you try to recreate these movements? Could you put together a dance or a performance to show these movements? So it is with a heavy heart that I have to report that The Ugly Five was something of a disappointment. For a school librarian, this is as close to sacrilege as you can get. Their powerful jaws can crush the bones of some of Africa’s largest animals, and their strong stomach acid makes easy work of any meal. Hyenas will eat almost anything, including hoofs and bones. Oliver thought it was mysterious. Sonny pondered the message of the book and told me: “At the end of the book they weren’t really ugly at all - they were lovely.”

Multibuys

Their preferred habitat is open grasslands. They use seasonal migration as an optimal survival strategy to access and use large areas of resources, minimising overgrazing in both dry and wet seasons. The book is about the animals known on safari as the Ugly Five - the cosmetically challenged companions of the more famous Big Five (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, buffalo and elephant). They are the wildebeest, warthog, spotted hyena, lappet-faced vulture and Marabou stork. For an unfortunate-looking animal, wildebeests certainly put on a spectacular show. The great wildebeest migration is the greatest movement of terrestrial mammals on Earth. Over a million wildebeest gallop through the Serengeti in search of greener pastures. Catching a glimpse of this action is a coveted safari dream. 4. Hyena In reality, warthogs are quite intelligent. They sleep underground at night, yet they don’t dig their own burrows. Rather, they steal them from other animals, such as aardvarks. Not a kind move, but a clever one.

I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). Wildebeests may not be easy on the eyes, but they’re not terribly unattractive when compared to the other animals on this list. Besides, an ugly wildebeest wouldn’t know how ‘ugly’ it was, as their eyesight is extremely poor. Tell a hyena that it’s ugly and it will probably ‘laugh’ in your face. In all honesty, they’re not terribly unattractive.

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As always, Julia Donaldson’s rhyming is fabulous. It is never forced or awkward and, with its rhythm and wit, is always a pleasure to read. The illustrations by Axel Scheffler are again lovely. His style is instantaneously recognisable and very child-friendly. The message of the book is charming - that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder and that we are perfect just the way we are. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.