Possums are a pest in New Zealand. I've often said "the only good possum is a dead possum" - which is unkind, but they do an enormous amount of damage to the native wildlife here so I have little sympathy for them. Honestly, the only time I feel at all kindly towards them is when I see an opossum. Not that I ever have, in the flesh, but I've seen them on documentaries and so forth, or in books like this one, and I'm sorry: they're creepy looking animals, they really are. That raggedy fur, that skinny tail... they make our pestilential brushtail look positively cute in comparison.

All of which is very unfair to the poor opossum, I know, but I can't help it. Somehow this book manages to make them look less disturbing than usual, so all credit there, and it's a nice little addition to the Backyard series. I did note, though, that the other Backyard books I've read have little notes in the back about the non-featured plants and animals depicted in the book, but that was absent here, which was a little bit of a shame. I would have liked a little more information on the "playing possum" strategy used as well, as the book says it's automatic, but I guess I'd have to find a more in-depth book for that. If I can get over the opossum creep factor enough to go looking, that is.