Best for browsers who like their facts fast.
Cusick explores how gravity-defying flight, coiled and tubelike tongues, bite-proof armor and other surprising adaptations in animal bodies and behavior provide a competitive edge.
This presentation of amazing animal facts is loosely organized into three sections: defense, foraging and anatomy. There’s a short introduction for each section followed by a series of boxed explanations interspersed among a gallery of close-up photographs, mostly from the National Wildlife Federation archives. Some images are quite wonderful: a family of cygnets riding a swan’s back, a porcupine chewing on a branch, an unidentified moth with a coiled tongue. Others are really too small to see details well. Some images are clearly labeled with the creature’s name; others can be guessed from the nearby text, but some will be mysteries (perhaps better than the “great egret” caption for the snowy egret picture). Readers are asked some thought-provoking questions as well as offered cool facts. Scavenger-hunt challenges in the concluding section call for both inside and outside research. A companion volume, Animals That Make Me Say OUCH!, follows the same format, but its third section deals with adaptations for hostile environments. Both titles feature lively, colorful design.
Best for browsers who like their facts fast. (read more, glossary, acknowledgements, index) (Nonfiction. 7-12)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62354-041-8
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Imagine Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive dunk into a vast subject—and on course for shorter attention spans.
In the wake of Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts! (2019), Lowery spins out likewise frothy arrays of facts and observations about sharks, whales, giant squid, and smaller but no less extreme (or at least extremely interesting) sea life.
He provides plenty of value-added features, from overviews of oceanic zones and environments to jokes, drawing instructions, and portrait galleries suitable for copying or review. While not one to pass up any opportunity to, for instance, characterize ambergris as “whale vomit perfume” or the clownfish’s protective coating as “snot armor,” he also systematically introduces members of each of the eight orders of sharks, devotes most of a page to the shark’s electroreceptive ampullae of Lorenzini, and even sheds light on the unobvious differences between jellyfish and the Portuguese man-of-war or the reason why the blue octopus is said to have “arms” rather than “tentacles.” He also argues persuasively that sharks have gotten a bad rap (claiming that more people are killed each year by…vending machines) and closes with pleas to be concerned about plastic waste, to get involved in conservation efforts, and (cannily) to get out and explore our planet because (quoting Jacques-Yves Cousteau) “People protect what they love.” Human figures, some with brown skin, pop up occasionally to comment in the saturated color illustrations. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 45% of actual size.)
An immersive dunk into a vast subject—and on course for shorter attention spans. (bibliography, list of organizations) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35973-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Inviting and informative, with charming purrsonality.
Animal advocate and Kitten Lady blogger Shaw shares facts and her experiences fostering kittens.
As an animal foster parent, Shaw provides a temporary home and special care to vulnerable kittens until they find an adopter. Most of the kittens she shelters are orphans, often found in “unexpected places” like trash cans and the side of the highway without their mothers. Neonatal kittens, those with their eyes still closed and ears folded, are the most defenseless. In order to grow up healthy, kittens need help regulating their body temperature, receiving nutrients, learning to groom themselves, and getting appropriate amounts of rest and activity. Shaw celebrates every adoption. Her home is never empty because there are always more kittens in need. Photographs with playful embellishments accompany the first-person, informational narrative. The prose is full of cutesy language (“li’l peanuts”; “snuggle-dumplings”), but the casual conversational style fits the undeniable sweetness of the kittens and doesn’t detract from the educational aspect of the text. Words set in bold, green text are defined in the glossary. Shaw adds a personal touch by naming many of the kittens depicted in the photographs and using them as examples as she describes the details of kitten care. Although she emphasizes the dedication and hard work required for raising kittens, she encourages readers to get involved and suggests creative ways to help.
Inviting and informative, with charming purrsonality. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 7-12)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3894-1
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
