Excellent for the natural history and science shelves.
Carmichael offers explanations and illuminations about the planet’s largest land biome while Bisaillon supplies collage-style art in muted tones.
Poetic language in large print, set against the backdrop of a snowy woodland scene, begins a book with thoughtful text, art, and layout: “Glaciers melt, soil breathes, seeds fly on a warming breeze. Trees creep ever, ever north.” Every double-page spread reveals germane science and geography or presents an appealing landscape showing an aspect of seasonal changes in the boreal forest. A winter-scarf motif acts as a unifying design element, serving as background to the names of countries whose flora and fauna are highlighted on various pages. Fascinating facts emerge from two sources: the lyrical language that describes a day for animals in a particular place and season and sidebars with pure scientific facts. The chosen facts are current, and the text carefully notes when scientists are still testing hypotheses about such ideas as how birds seem to use an organ called the Vitali to sense pressure changes before storms. Gentle humor is interspersed throughout. Climate change is frequently mentioned, both in terms of its effect on the boreal forest and on the ways in which this biome slows down global warming, and Indigenous peoples’ roles as participants in the boreal forest’s ecosystems are not ignored. The accessible text proves its point that the boreal forest is both vast and vital.
Excellent for the natural history and science shelves. (glossary, resources, index) (Informational picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0044-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
As factually grounded as it is irresistibly fun.
Leigh follows up The Deep! (2023)—a dive into undersea life—with a celebration of cave-dwelling creatures.
This work of graphic nonfiction starts with a brief, easily digestible introduction to caves before moving on to its true focus: the animal inhabitants. The longest section is devoted to the troglobites, full-time cave dwellers that have adapted to a life of total darkness; other sections cover the troglophiles, which spend at least part of their life cycles in caves, and the trogloxenes, such as bats and bears, that just show up for visits. Double-page spreads explore selected cave animals, offering fascinating tidbits—such as the difference between an olm and an axolotl—sure to tempt youngsters into learning more about their favorite critters. Leigh’s strong sense of humor is on display throughout, from plainly stated facts about animals’ bodily excretions to moments where the creatures—occasionally anthropomorphized but always accurately depicted—offer quirky commentary through speech bubbles. Although she occasionally mentions how these creatures can benefit people (for instance, studying the Mexican tetra, a fish with high blood sugar, might help us treat diabetes), for the most part, she encourages readers to love these places and species for their own sake. Final sections spotlight cool caves around the world (like Vietnam’s Son Doong cave, which is so big that it contains a rainforest in it), humanity’s own history with caves, and the dangers humans pose to such environments.
As factually grounded as it is irresistibly fun. (index) (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593662595
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
A wide-angled survey of the hot new field of “glacial archeology.” (timeline, resource list, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)
Recent revelations from our planet’s shrinking “cryosphere.”
Preserved in ice or permafrost like “the veggies in a kitchen freezer,” artifacts and bodies both human and animal are now being discovered at an increasingly rapid pace in many parts of the world. With particular attention to finds in northern Canada and, more broadly, the northern region known as Beringia, Eamer highlights their variety—from cave lion cubs, woolly mammoths, and rotting 2,400-year-old caribou poop to a moccasin “worn and lost 1300 years ago” and an entire passenger plane that went down in Alaska in 1952 but has only since 2012 begun emerging from a receding glacier. Many of these are both chance discoveries and ephemeral, but they offer unique information about ancient times and our own histories. For human remains she includes descriptions of Ötzi (the “Iceman”) and Scythian kurgan burials in the Altai Mountains among others but devotes particular attention to Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi, a 200- to 300-year-old Indigenous teen found in northern Canada with, according to DNA analysis, 17 living relatives. Shannon fills in the sparse assortment of photographed artifacts and bodies with rough, generic paintings, mostly reconstructions of prehistoric scenes or images of wildlife and of researchers at work. The rare human figures visible in the painted art are nearly all light-skinned.
A wide-angled survey of the hot new field of “glacial archeology.” (timeline, resource list, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77138-731-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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