Striking photographic images paired with stories and statements by birds, mammals, and reptiles cast light on some of humanity’s most sacred writings. Speaking rhinos and puffins are no more unlikely than talking humans; and considering where all of our talk has gotten us (the brink of extinction), it is time we listened to our fellow creatures. They are funny, thoughtful, observant, and like the Hebrew prophets they point out the worst in us and elicit the best, giving straight talk of warning and of hope. In these pages a pigeon with travel anxiety, Geraldine the matter-of-fact Florida Cooter, Schmidt the twigfitter songbird, Mephistophelean alligators, vanishing bison of the prairies, and lions of Africa and Asia ‘hold . . . the mirror up to nature’ and show us our unlikely and imperfect human face.

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