Krista's Reviews > Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

I have mixed feelings about this book, and I haven't finished it, so I'm not sure if it's fair to write a review yet. But one thing keeps annoying me throughout the text: her constant use of the term "animals" when she really means "mammals" or specifically livestock. She makes generalizations such as "animals are visual creatures" which is certainly not true for the majority of animal species. She's specifically talking about livestock and hoofstock, but she's not using the specific term. On page 59, she uses dung beetles in an example of differing forms of sensory perception but then actually writes "I know dung beetles are insects, not animals, but..."

Um, what? You have a PhD in animal science, but you don't think insects are animals?

In order to get through the book I find myself mentally replacing the word "animal" with "mammal" in order for the text to make sense -- but even then, there's too many gross generalizations that annoy me. Also, Grandin comes across as somewhat smug and snobby about her "talent", but I'll attribute that to her autism and difficulty with human social interactions.

I agree with some of her perspectives; disagree with others. It's not a bad book, but it's certainly not the be-all and end-all of animal behavior.