Steve Jenkins’s trademark symbiosis of engaging text and detailed, dynamic collage images is perfectly suited to the exploration of the (usually) mutually beneficial relationships between a host of different creatures. Jenkins adapts a graphic novel design format, using panels on each page or page spread to tell the story of each creature’s role in the symbiotic relationship. The tiny boxer crab, for example, uses sea anemones to defend itself from large fish, waving the anemones’ deadly tentacles like a boxer waving gloves. In return, the anemones receive stray bits of food when the boxer crab eats. A book that invites dabbling as well as reading straight through includes additional information about symbiosis and each of the volume’s subjects in the closing pages. (Ages 9–13)

How to Clean a Hippopotamus, a book about animal symbiosis, offers readers a close-up, step-by-step view of nature’s fascinating partnerships. Find out why a mongoose comes running when a warthog lies down, how a crab and an iguana help each other out, why ravens follow wolves, and more. Witness the ingenious lifestyles of some of the world’s most unusual animal partners in this book of curious biology, a symbiotic collaboration by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page.