Impressive.
Orca activist Sandstrom details the 2002 rescue of an orphaned juvenile separated from her northern resident pod in British Columbia.
After she’s sighted in Washington’s Puget Sound, regional experts work at identification. Orcas live in tightly bonded pods; individuals’ unique dorsal fin shapes, saddle patches, and calls are well documented by researchers. A hydrophone records this orca’s call, keying it to the A4 pod. Photos corroborate her identity as Springer, born in 2000. She and her mother had failed to return to Johnstone Strait with their pod in 2001. Springer’s reappearance sets off an extraordinary rescue and pod reunion involving citizen and professional scientists, nonprofits, U.S. and Canadian governmental agencies, and First Nations and Native American tribal members. Sandstrom is key in organizing financial and in-kind support for the complex rescue, helping to build the Orphan Orca Fund, a coalition of seven nonprofits. Combining eyewitness experiences with solid research, her narrative delivers a clear, month-by-month account of Springer’s rescue, imparting an exciting immediacy. Burwash’s appealing illustrations provide valuable detail. Between first sighting and ultimate reunion, Springer is assessed, monitored, weighed, dewormed, and twice transported to holding net pens. Fascinatingly quickly, experts detect A4 pod’s calls—and Springer’s response. Within 24 hours of Springer’s Canadian homecoming, A4 pod arrives, and Springer is released. Sandstrom recounts subsequent reunions—human and cetacean—and the marvelous news of Springer’s two calves. Cogent topical interludes provide historical and scientific background.
Impressive. (maps, matriline, human-made threats, photos, how to help, glossary, bibliography, websites, team participants, author’s note) (Nonfiction. 6-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0117-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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