Smarter Than You Think

It turns out that you don’t necessarily need a big brain to do clever things. Animals use intelligence in very different ways. This book makes it clear that – if you can look beyond the end of your human nose – there’s a whole world of animal intelligence out there.

The book opens with the spectacular story of Hans, a horse who turned out to be a linguistic and mathematical prodigy. That wasn’t because he could actually do maths, but because of his other extraordinary feats of intelligence, in areas such as reading body language, paying attention, memory and cooperation. In the chapters that follow, a large number of amazing creatures show off their clever skills. They’re divided into categories that appeal to the imagination, such as survival, cooperation, defence, hunting, seduction and deceit.

Using stories, observations, experiments and research carried out by behavioural scientists and others, Stegeman writes vividly and passionately about smart tricks, amazing events and fascinating phenomena. Her voice is intimate, engaging, knowledgeable and full of life, and she writes in a style that arouses the reader’s curiosity and whets the appetite for more information. It’s like a perfectly constructed documentary that holds your attention from start to finish.

Illustrator Mark Janssen plays with light, shadow and colour. His breathtaking compositions lift the animals off the paper, capturing their energy and emotions in a unique way. The life-like images – sometimes small, sometimes filling a whole page – are real works of art. This is an exceptional non-fiction book, whose most important message is an invitation to take a more open-minded approach to intelligence. These animals show that there are thousands of brilliant ways to be supersmart that go far beyond the narrow parameters within which we usually measure genius.

Age: 9+

• Recommended by Jane Goodall

• Brilliant non-fiction

• A treasure trove of animal intelligence