Eye-widening indeed—in design as well as topic.
Keen looks into, and through, a wide range of animal eyes.
Duprat opens his large-format gallery of vividly rendered animal faces, life size or (much) larger, with a fold-out leaf on which a surrealistic outdoor scene that is clear in the middle distance but a bit blurry in back- and foreground reproduces a typical human field of vision. On subsequent pages viewers can lift flaps to see how a chimp and a dog, an eagle, a frog, an earthworm, a bee, and 14 other creatures would see that scene’s colors, objects, and edges. He shows what a cat would see by day and at night, varies the generally binocular view in a startling way by pointing a chameleon’s eyes in two different directions, and suggests what the 360-degree perspective of a woodcock might look like. Along the way, in lucid specifics he explains how rods and cones gather information and brains process it, points out anatomical differences in each animal’s ocular structure, and describes how each animal’s distinctive combination of perceptual capabilities help it find or avoid becoming food. But even readers disinclined to care much about “ommatidia” or the difference between “dichromat” and “trichromat” retinas will be riveted by the experience of lifting flaps and literally (with the given proviso that we must imagine what birds and other animals who see into the ultraviolet perceive) seeing through new eyes.
Eye-widening indeed—in design as well as topic. (index, source list) (Informational novelty. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-999802-85-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: What on Earth!
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Two veteran illustrators take on nature study in this expanded version of Aruego’s Symbiosis: A Book of Unusual Friendships (1970), with indifferent success. Without ever actually using the term “symbiosis,” or discussing its various categories, the two present 16 cases of animal relationships. Zebras and ostriches sometimes band together to take advantage of the former’s keen hearing and the latter’s eyesight; ants will bring the caterpillar of the Large Blue Butterfly into their nest in exchange for its secretions; horse mackerels will hide within, and draw victims to, the Portuguese man-of-war’s stinging tentacles; while sooty shearwaters are “out,” reptilian tuataras will move in to clean their nests of vermin. The visuals are typically lively, all bright colors and small animal figures either smiling or grimacing toothily, but beyond endnotes supplying locales for these “weird friends,” the information is generally scanty. The fact that the caterpillar proceeds to gorge on ant larvae until driven out goes unmentioned, and does that tuatara become a permanent resident, as the narrative states, or does it depart, as the picture shows? There are no sources of further information cited for interested readers to check out, either. Rare is the child who doesn’t recognize or enjoy the art of this successful team, but these days, informational books need more than pretty pictures. (pronunciation guide) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2002
ISBN: 978-0-15-202128-3
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Gulliver/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
An uplifting tale of animal rights, perseverance, and kids’ power to make a difference.
Polio survivor Velma Bronn Johnston, known as Wild Horse Annie, fights to save mustang horses from slaughter.
Since she was “just a speck of a girl,” Annie has loved the mustangs on her family’s Nevada ranch. After Annie contracts polio at age 11, emerging with a bent spine and twisted face, she dreams of galloping with wild herds. But by the time Annie gets married and starts her own ranch, the herds have been killed by cattle ranchers and hunters. In folksy language matching Annie’s quoted quips, Fern recounts Annie’s campaigns to protect mustangs first locally, then federally. Refusing to “hush up” and unfazed by threats, Annie sends hundreds of letters and addresses government officials even though speaking in public makes her feel like “a cat on a hot frying pan.” Finally, help from her “secret weapon”—an enthusiastic letter-writing, fundraising “pencil brigade” of schoolchildren—leads to the 1971 passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Salerno’s sun-drenched illustrations capture the equally hardy spirits of the mustangs and Annie herself. Though the author acknowledges Annie’s disfigurement, chronic pain, and self-consciousness, Annie’s most prominent features are alternately her stubbornly scowling eyebrows and wide, warm grin. An author’s note provides further background on mustangs and Johnston’s pioneering efforts. Annie and her husband are white; the children’s complexions vary.
An uplifting tale of animal rights, perseverance, and kids’ power to make a difference. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30306-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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