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REWILDING

Name: REWILDING
Author: David A. Steen
ISBN: 978-1-68449-222-0

BRINGING WILDLIFE BACK WHERE IT BELONGS

by David A. Steen ; illustrated by Chiara Fedele ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2022

A fascinating primer on the intricacies of ecosystems.

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The practice of repopulating nearly extinct animals and plant life is explained and illustrated in great detail.

What do the Arabian onyx, the Iberian lynx, and the peregrine falcon have in common? Each of these animals was in danger of becoming extinct or of disappearing from a home habitat, at least until researchers stepped in to protect them. This exhaustive volume tells the stories of several dozen animals and plants that were brought back from the brink. The book explains the concept of rewilding up front, showing how biologists are able to help these creatures gain numbers and then reenter nature. But far from a glossing over of what happens then, Steen also explains why some of these efforts fail, arguments against the practice (for instance, introducing predators near populated areas is potentially risky), and, most importantly, how to help these efforts. In detailing why environmental changes caused by humans can cause a chain reaction leading to the decimation of, say, the Kihansi spray toad, the team offers a nuanced view of why bad things can happen to ecosystems even unintentionally. Most interesting is that each species and habitat is a whole new challenge; there’s no one-size-fits-all cure-all that can restore a balance in nature, and sometimes achieving balance isn’t possible. This nuanced view holds throughout the book’s 80 finely illustrated pages, where the animals are presented not as cutesy anthropomorphized creatures but in a realistic, no-less-endearing style. For younger readers, it may not be a volume that’s consumed in one sitting, but there’s enough variety of stories and helpful additions, such as a glossary and a “What Can You Do?” page, that it’s a book worth returning to multiple times. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A fascinating primer on the intricacies of ecosystems. (index) (Informational picture book. 8-10)

Pub Date: July 19, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-68449-222-0

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Neon Squid/Macmillan

Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

From the All About America series

by Hilarie N. Staton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2012

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Shot through with vague generalities and paired to a mix of equally generic period images and static new art, this overview remorselessly sucks all the juice from its topic.

This survey of the growth of industries in this country from the Colonial period to the post–World War II era is written in the driest of textbook-ese: “Factories needed good transportation so that materials could reach them and so that materials could reach buyers”; “The metal iron is obtained by heating iron ore”; “In 1860, the North said that free men, not slaves, should do the work.” This text is supplemented by a jumble of narrative-overview blocks, boxed side observations and terse captions on each thematic spread. The design is packed with overlapping, misleadingly seamless and rarely differentiated mixes of small, heavily trimmed contemporary prints or (later) photos and drab reconstructions of workshop or factory scenes, along with pictures of significant inventions and technological innovations (which are, in several cases, reduced to background design elements). The single, tiny map has no identifying labels. Other new entries in the All About America series deal similarly with Explorers, Trappers, and Pioneers, A Nation of Immigrants and Stagecoaches and Railroads. Utilitarian, at best—but more likely to dim reader interest than kindle it. (index, timeline, resource lists) (Nonfiction. 8-10)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-7534-6670-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kingfisher

Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

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THE NATURAL WORLD

THE WORLD IN INFOGRAPHICS

From the World in Infographics series

by Jon Richards ; illustrated by Ed Simkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2013

A trendy instructional tool, applied with mixed success both here and in the co-published Planet Earth, which gives our...

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Kicking off a series, this spotty tour of the biosphere demonstrates both the possibilities and the pitfalls of infographics.

Made up of realistically shaped silhouettes in a range of dizzyingly intense colors, the pictorial graphs packed into each single-topic spread are intended to highlight sequential or comparative relationships. Thematic groupings include the development of life on Earth, types of cells, the range of animal sizes and population trends in selected endangered species. At their best, as in a historical chart of mass extinctions or a silhouette of a sequoia next to a stack of 29 elephants, the visuals are both vivid and revelatory. More often, though, the graphics are poorly scaled (are chicken and turtle eggs really the same size, and what kind of turtle are we talking about?) or are really just stylized illustrations—a strand of DNA, an isolated slice of bread, a diagram of cell division. The accompanying captions and comments aren’t always enlightening either: Ostrich eggs “weigh about 3.5 lb. (1.5 kg)—nearly two bags of sugar.”

A trendy instructional tool, applied with mixed success both here and in the co-published Planet Earth, which gives our geology and atmosphere the same quick once-over. (Nonfiction. 8-10)