An engaging argument for keeping bugs as pets.
A debut nonfiction book offers stories about endearing insect pets.
In this work, Lori-Michele introduces readers to the menagerie of insects that have kept her company over the past decade. Her pets have mostly been Western conifer seed bugs—a handful of shield bugs round out the collection—and the author has gotten to know the insects as individuals as well as on a species level. Lori-Michele explains how her first Western conifer seed bug came to take up residence in her home. She recounts the system she developed for interacting with the insects and taking care of them, from bottle caps filled with sugar water to small cloth beds where the bugs tuck themselves in every night. All the insects have names, and the author describes the highly individual personalities she has observed in each. Much of the text consists of stories about the antics of Maybe, Peppercorn, Cautious, Ribbon, and their compatriots, who enjoy being petted, keep their owner company while she watches TV or uses a computer, and occasionally get rough with other bugs. Lori-Michele’s close connection to her insects has led her to conclude that they are capable of both feeling and understanding emotions and are more intelligent than both entomologists and laypeople generally believe (“Entomologists completely dismiss the notion of the Western conifer’s ability to love and their intelligence because they are not shown to look for these things or that they matter”). Insect aficionados will be tempted to embrace the book’s detailed instructions for caring for Western conifer seed bugs after reading the author’s passionate advocacy for them. The text can be repetitive (for instance, readers are instructed three times in 10 pages to clean and refill the bottle cap feeders), and the prose is unpolished, with occasional comma splices and misused words. But Lori-Michele’s enthusiasm for her bugs makes for enjoyable reading, and her meticulous observation of their behavior supports her arguments for their emotional intelligence. Numerous photographs by the author throughout the text illustrate the behaviors described and showcase the insects’ individuality.
An engaging argument for keeping bugs as pets.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-98-461725-8
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A prolific reporter of paranormal phenomena strains to bring that same sense of wonder to 12 “transposed”—that is, paraphrased from interviews but related in first person—accounts of extraordinary experiences. Some feats are more memorable than others; compared to Bethany Hamilton’s return to competitive surfing after having her arm bitten off by a shark and Mark Inglis’ climb to the top of Mount Everest on two prosthetic legs, Joe Hurley’s nine-month walk from Cape Cod to Long Beach, Calif., is anticlimactic. Dean Karnazes hardly seems to be exerting himself as he runs 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days, and the comments of an Air Force Thunderbirds pilot and a military Surgeon’s Assistant in Iraq come off as carefully bland. The survivors of a hurricane at sea, a lightning strike and a tornado, on the other hand, tell more compelling stories. Most of the color photos are at least marginally relevant, and each entry closes with a short note on its subject’s subsequent activities. Casual browsers will be drawn to at least some of the reconstructed narratives in this uneven collection. A reading list would have been more useful than the superfluous index, though. Fun, in a scattershot sort of way. (Nonfiction browsing item. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6711-1
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
The level of violence is unrealistically low, but these purposeful vignettes add a gauzy back story to what today’s children...
In six fictional episodes directly linked to paleontological artifacts, Weaver retraces the past 2.5 million years of “hominin” (pre)history.
Framed as a modern lad’s daydreams, her reconstructions open with the short life of the Australopithecine “Taung child” and end with a supposed seasonal ritual by a group of early modern Homo sapiens in what would become Europe some 26,000 years ago. In between they offer scenes in the daily lives (and deaths) of Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Neanderthal in future Africa and the Mideast. With paintings that resemble museum-diorama backgrounds—loose, but careful with natural detail—Celeskey tracks evolutionary changes in facial features, body types and clothing (or lack thereof). As the narrative progresses, the author inserts speculative but informed touchpoints in the development of names (“Roaank Awaagh” to “Moluk of the Wolf Clan”) and language, tools and culture. Explanatory afterwords elaborate on the evidence incorporated into each chapter.
The level of violence is unrealistically low, but these purposeful vignettes add a gauzy back story to what today’s children may have only seen as a few old chipped stones and fossil bones. (resource lists) (Creative nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8263-4442-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Univ. of New Mexico
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
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