A surprisingly comprehensive history of wild horses.
An educational journey about horses that spans history from the Miocene to modern times.
The largely forgotten history of the millions of mustangs that roamed the American West, as well as the activists who set out to save them in the 1970s, is explored in this graphic novel. It’s told a bit like a classroom lecture, with an illustrated horse playing impromptu professor to two stylized figures that look like Keith Haring’s free-figure drawings. The pop-culture pictographs argue in a comical way with the talking horse as it clarifies everything from the origins of horses to the culling that ensued in order to clear the open prairie for farming. With realistic, detailed illustrations of Spanish ships, conquistadors, Native people, bison, and the Pueblo Revolt set alongside the two questioning silhouettes, the comic book employs everything from maps to X-ray images of a horse’s digestive system to get at the big picture of America’s history even as it maintains its focus on horses. The story of early Natives, traders, horse thieves, and settlers gives way to the Wild Horse Act and the Bureau of Land Management horse-adoption program that exists in our country today. While the conquest of America is perhaps attributed too heavily to Hernán Cortés and his horses—excluding any talk of pandemics and lateral violence—the story encapsulated here is impressive for its scope. Sadly, though, the self-referential tendency of the classroom lecture uses too much space.
A surprisingly comprehensive history of wild horses. (afterword, timeline, further reading, appendices) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-17427-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
This latest addition to an always-intriguing series describes the work of Fernando Rosas, John Reynolds and Lucy Keith studying manatees in different parts of the world. Gentle, slow-moving vegetarians, these curious aquatic mammals are distant relatives of elephants and live in the Amazon, in Florida and nearby ocean waters and in West African rivers. The three different but similar species are all listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as extremely vulnerable to extinction. Florida’s protected manatees are a tourist attraction, easy to see in the clear waters of the Crystal River and in discharge zones of power plants, where they congregate for warmth in cold spells. The more mysterious manatees of Brazil and West Africa lurk in murky rivers and are sometimes killed and eaten. These three researchers track the animals in different ways, use biological techniques to learn more about their lives, work with people of the area toward protection and even, in Brazil, experiment with returning some to the wild from captivity. Like other books in this series, this is distinguished by clear, realistic explanations of scientific fieldwork and well-reproduced photographs, many taken by the author. The text, on the advanced side for the intended audience, is broken up by captioned photos, some mounted as snapshots. Overall, it lives up to the standards set by others in this stellar series. (maps, resources, glossary, author’s note, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-15254-7
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite a few oddities, aspiring young dog owners will find useful information here.
A serviceable guide to dog ownership, dog training and popular dog breeds.
Intended more as a reference tool than a guide to be read straight through, this book contains a mix of practical tips, explanations of dogs' behavior and technical dog-breeding jargon (only the geekiest of would-be dog owners will want to know the difference between a brick head, a cone head and a dish face). Thirteen chapters cover the history of human-dog relations, bringing home a new dog, training tips, routine care and more. Kid-friendly cartoons, sidebars, photos and “Ask Your K-9 Coach” advice columns supplement prose instructions. The author takes a compassionate approach, usually explaining dogs' unwanted behavior by pointing to humans' mistakes and suggesting firm but kind methods of correction. Some of the books' suggestions seem inadvisable: One “lab report” tells readers to observe the reflective tapetum lucidum by shining a flashlight into a dog's eyes, and it is hard to imagine the dog party hat the author suggests as a craft project staying on for more than a few moments. A guide to 74 dog breeds common in the U.S. is attractively presented but organized, confusingly to the lay reader, by size.
Despite a few oddities, aspiring young dog owners will find useful information here. (Reference. 10- 14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7611-5841-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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