Answers to Go with Susan Smith

Q. My preschooler and I were reading “Please, Mr. Panda,” a silly book about manners. One of the characters is a ring-tailed lemur. My child loves nonfiction and would like to know more about lemurs. Can you recommend a book?

A. Certainly. We have books about animals for all ages. Let’s start with “Lemurs” by Kari Schuetz. The photographs are great and the text is simple.

Here is a sample: “Lemurs live on the island of Madagascar. Forests and rain forests are their home. Groups of lemurs are called troops. Females rule troops.

“Lemurs can make themselves smelly. They use their stink to mark their territory. Males also use their stink to fight. They wave their smelly tails at one another!"

“Lemurs on Location” by Kathy Darling is a longer book offering more details. While young children enjoy the pictures, I recommend that parents scan the text for interesting details to share.

I’ve used the same practice to pick selections of Darling’s text for you: “Lemur cries are so scary that the first Europeans who heard them believed the forests were haunted. They thought the howling animals were the ghosts of dead people who meant them harm, and called them lemurs. Lemur means 'spirit of the evil dead.'

“Millions of years ago, Madagascar was part of Africa. During one of the big rearrangements of the earth’s land masses, Madagascar broke off and moved 250 miles into the Indian Ocean. The plants and animals on the island evolved in isolation. More than 80 percent of the living things on this island aren’t found anywhere else.

“Lemurs are primates, members of the same group of mammals that includes monkeys, apes and us. However, most lemurs have faces like a dog or a fox with whiskers and a wet nose.

“Lemurs, like other primates have hands with movable fingers that gives them the ability to climb by grasping, and a pair of forward-facing eyes. With eyes in the front of the face, it is possible to judge distances accurately. That’s a big advantage for an animal that leaps from branch to branch.

“How far an animal can jump is determined by takeoff speed. Takeoff speed does not directly depend on a creature’s size or weight. In mammals, jumping ability is based on muscle power. Lemurs have a lot of muscle in relation to body weight; lemurs have twice as much muscle power as any human.

“All the power in a lemur’s leap comes from its long hind legs. Pushing off with its feet, the lemur launches itself into the air in an upright position. With arms extended and tail trailing for balance, the lemur always makes a feet-first landing.”