It’s a fun spin on the old saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which also exposes children to a variety of animals of which they may be unfamiliar.  The rhyming text and Scheffler’s familiar big-eyed illustrative style make the book fun and inviting.  An author’s note at the front gives readers a context, as the author explains her experience of being on Safari in Africa where others were focused on spotting The Big Five animals, while she found herself more intrigued by The Ugly Five.  In this story, the wildebeest, the hyena, the lappet-faced vulture, the warthog, and the marabou stork each sing about how ugly they are, banding together to form The Ugly Five.  But eventually they come to a gaggle of their own babies, who declare that to them, The Ugly Five are really the The Lovely Five.  A two-page spread in the back shares a variety of other animals that readers might want to investigate, grouped as to The Big Five, The Little Five, The Shy Five, and The Ugly Five.  Throughout the book, illustrations include a variety of other African animals.  One thing I would have liked to see would be another set of pages in the back that named the other animals included in the book, so that curious students would have a starting place for further exploration.