A simply written animal tale with grade school–accessible vocabulary that’s sure to entertain children despite the mixed...
What does it take to raise chickens in the city? A woman and her cat find out in this true story by debut author and photographer Burrill.
“I’d heard that it’s cheap, easy and fun to raise egg-laying chickens in the city,” Burrill begins, her words accompanied by a clip-art chick and a photograph of her home’s garden shed. As she recounts the tale on text-dense pages, always with her own photographs or clip art present, she reveals it is indeed inexpensive to begin this project, but that the time and effort required to care for chickens and collect their eggs are far more than she bargained for. First, she purchased three small chicks, whom she kept indoors in a heated cage. It was there that her black cat, Tinker, fell in love. Rather than want to eat or torment the chicks, Tinker mothered them, draping herself on top of their cage to watch their antics. Burrill invited some local children to name the chicks (Daisy, Maizey, and Omelette). As the three grew, their chirping became louder, and Tinker fretted about her brood. Her worries only became worse after they moved outside to the backyard. After the chickens matured, Burrill was excited to see the first egg, but she was not prepared for Maizey escaping over her backyard fence to discover a good laying spot. Maizey led Burrill on a wild hunt, laying her eggs in odd places, and soon the other chickens followed suit. The chickens’ mischief overshadowed Tinker’s role in raising them, but eventually the cat helped Burrill locate an escaped hen. This child-friendly series opener offers an appealing tale. But some of the references and puns the author makes may fly over the heads of young readers (about the notion of buying grocery-store eggs, she explains, “I’d feel like a traitor, an ‘Eggs Benedict Arnold’ ”). And the human cast lacks diversity. Nevertheless, children should easily imagine Burrill having to rake out seven hidden eggs from beneath her shed and her attentive cat protectively watching over the adorable chicks. The clip art adds little to the text, but the author’s photographs are excellent, giving readers a clear sense of what it’s like to be a chicken-raising hobbyist.
A simply written animal tale with grade school–accessible vocabulary that’s sure to entertain children despite the mixed style and quality of the illustrations.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5144-4989-9
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Ape-language specialist Savage-Rumbaugh and science writer Lewin (co-author of Origins with Richard Leakey, 1977) run the superchimp Kanzi past us once again with this latest in the current deluge of books on animal brain power. Kanzi—already a phenom with Newsweek, Time, and National Geographic covers to his credit—is an ape with a mind of his own; his facility with communication (via a special keyboard) is a marvel. But Kanzi gets only limited airtime here; he's more like a sideshow barker's prop to entice the customers. The authors spend most of the book going over the history of ape-language research (and it does go back: Samuel Pepys's name is mentioned), briefly rummage in linguistic theory (long enough to unconvincingly trash Noam Chomsky), and visit with other ape subjects. When it comes to the use of language by the great apes, the jury is still out; they might have even gone home. Theorists continue to debate the importance of production versus comprehension, to dispute intentionality, to worry about an ape's reflectiveness. It is to Savage-Rumbaugh's credit that she gives as much importance to glances, gestures, and postures as communicative modes as she does to utterances and keyboard talent. It seems quite clear that the apes have no interest in joining the Yale debating squad, so why put them to that measure? When Kanzi is brought into the story, the tone lightens. He is a clever, humorous, astonishing character, and his developing relationship with Savage-Rumbaugh is where Lewin really shines. The quickly sketched vignettes are uniformly winning: For instance, Savage-Rumbaugh has her keys snatched by an obstreperous member of the ape troupe. She asks Kanzi to get them back. He shuffles over to the offending ape, murmurs in his ear, and the keys are returned forthwith. Call this effort ``Notes Toward an Understanding,'' for every theory is conjecture, but there are also many fine nuggets to be mined. (Photos, not seen) (First serial to Discover)
Pub Date: Oct. 21, 1994
ISBN: 0-471-58591-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
Lively writing and colorful anecdotes enhance this insightful look at an unexpected side of agriculture.
We’ve cultivated plants since the dawn of time; but all along, the plants have been cultivating us as well.
Pollan (A Place of My Own, 1997) uses four plant species to support his thesis: apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes. Each, by offering some quality that we humans find valuable, has managed to propagate itself throughout the world. In the process, each has generated more than its share of fascinating lore. Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) has become an icon of early American enterprise, creating orchards out of untamed forest. But the apples Chapman planted were meant not for eating, but for cider, the ubiquitous tipple of early America. Only when temperance began to give the apple a bad name did orchardmen switch to the sweet varieties for eating. The tulip boom in early 18th-century Holland saw prize bulbs selling for the price of a fashionable house in Amsterdam. Now, ironically, the plant that commands high prices in Amsterdam is marijuana, over the last few decades the focus of some of the most intense research in the botanical sciences (most of it conducted indoors, away from official eyes). The humble potato, for its part, has come a long way since its origins as an Andean weed: The russet Burbank, for example, which yields perfect fries for the fast-food trade, dominates the US market almost to the exclusion of all other taters, and its cultivation depends heavily on chemicals nastier than anything the cannabis bud secretes. Pollan keeps the reader aware of how the plants induce us to spread their genetic material to new environments—and how the preservation of natural variability is a key to keeping them (and us) healthy.
Lively writing and colorful anecdotes enhance this insightful look at an unexpected side of agriculture.Pub Date: May 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-50129-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
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