Fans of these popular marine mammals will be intrigued.
On boats and in labs, biologists study the dwindling population of orcas living in the waters off the San Juan Islands between Canada and Washington.
A study that began in 1971 is continued today by scientists from the Center for Whale Research. They photograph each orca in what are called the Southern Resident pods, follow them in the field, take blubber samples, collect their scat, and perform extensive lab analyses of their data. This attractively illustrated title introduces these family-loving mammals, often misnamed “killer whales.” The Southern Residents are fish eaters; their usual prey are salmon, whose populations are also shrinking. Joining researchers in a small boat, the author observes a mother teaching her calf to fish. She describes another series of studies proving that sounds made by boats stress the orcas. She demonstrates the use of dogs trained to find whale scat and the use of a camera-equipped drone to photograph the pods without disturbing them. Between six longer chapters are shorter sections of whale facts as well as descriptions of the Samish Nation orca-naming ceremony, orca food around the world, a captive whale in Florida, and a Chinook salmon’s migration; there are also suggestions for reader involvement. The exposition here is less immediate than in some other entries in this long-running series, the narrative arc hard to follow, and the maps unclear, but the story is important.
Fans of these popular marine mammals will be intrigued. (glossary, selected bibliography and sources, acknowledgements and author’s note, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-89826-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
Entomophobes will find all of this horrifyingly informative.
This junior edition of Stewart’s lurid 2011 portrait gallery of the same name (though much less gleeful subtitle) loses none of its capacity for leaving readers squicked-out.
The author drops a few entries, notably the one on insect sexual practices, and rearranges toned-down versions of the rest into roughly topical sections. Beginning with the same cogent observation—“We are seriously outnumbered”—she follows general practice in thrillers of this ilk by defining “bug” broadly enough to include all-too-detailed descriptions of the life cycles and revolting or deadly effects of scorpions and spiders, ticks, lice, and, in a chapter evocatively titled “The Enemy Within,” such internal guests as guinea worms and tapeworms. Mosquitoes, bedbugs, the ubiquitous “Filth Fly,” and like usual suspects mingle with more-exotic threats, from the tongue-eating louse and a “yak-killer hornet” (just imagine) to the aggressive screw-worm fly that, in one cited case, flew up a man’s nose and laid hundreds of eggs…that…hatched. Morrow-Cribbs’ close-up full-color drawings don’t offer the visceral thrills of the photos in, for instance, Rebecca L. Johnson’s Zombie Makers (2012) but are accurate and finely detailed enough to please even the fussiest young entomologists.
Entomophobes will find all of this horrifyingly informative. (index, glossary, resource lists) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61620-755-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
© 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
