An immersive dunk into a vast subject—and on course for shorter attention spans.
In the wake of Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts! (2019), Lowery spins out likewise frothy arrays of facts and observations about sharks, whales, giant squid, and smaller but no less extreme (or at least extremely interesting) sea life.
He provides plenty of value-added features, from overviews of oceanic zones and environments to jokes, drawing instructions, and portrait galleries suitable for copying or review. While not one to pass up any opportunity to, for instance, characterize ambergris as “whale vomit perfume” or the clownfish’s protective coating as “snot armor,” he also systematically introduces members of each of the eight orders of sharks, devotes most of a page to the shark’s electroreceptive ampullae of Lorenzini, and even sheds light on the unobvious differences between jellyfish and the Portuguese man-of-war or the reason why the blue octopus is said to have “arms” rather than “tentacles.” He also argues persuasively that sharks have gotten a bad rap (claiming that more people are killed each year by…vending machines) and closes with pleas to be concerned about plastic waste, to get involved in conservation efforts, and (cannily) to get out and explore our planet because (quoting Jacques-Yves Cousteau) “People protect what they love.” Human figures, some with brown skin, pop up occasionally to comment in the saturated color illustrations. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 45% of actual size.)
An immersive dunk into a vast subject—and on course for shorter attention spans. (bibliography, list of organizations) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35973-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Photography just doesn’t get more “up close and personal” than the buggy images in this oversized album.
Matched to hyperbolic commentary (“Not only that, [praying mantises] eat their prey alive. Gross!”), the pictures look like jumbles to the naked eye, but don one of the two accompanying pairs of cardboard glasses, and 21 kinds of insects, arachnids, scorpions and related creepy crawlies—most much, much larger than life size—will swim into unexpectedly close focus seemingly handspans above the page. These “phantograms” not only do standard 3D photos one better in appearing to be much higher and deeper, but they feature both multiple apparent levels (rather than the usual two) and unusually sharp fine detail to boot. Along with memorable visuals, the information about each type of critter’s physical features, geographic distribution, life cycles and diets can be found elsewhere, but they are seldom imparted with such relish: “Poop and vomit eaters—aren’t you glad you’re not a cricket?” A detailed description of the authors’ photographic methods and a closing “More Fun with 3-D” spread of paired insect photos, which can be viewed in stereo through two rolled up pieces of paper, provide splendid lagniappes for this face-plant into the realm of the many-legged. A crowd-pleasing follow up to Eye-Popping 3-D Pets (2009) if ever there was one, for young biologists and thrill-seeking browsers alike. (Informational novelty item. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8118-7772-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
The sense of wonder that infuses each simply worded chapter is contagious, and some of the photos are soooo cuuuuute.
The author of an adult book about uncommon animal attachments invites emergent readers to share the warm (Unlikely Friendships, 2011).
This is the first of four spinoffs, all rewritten and enhanced with fetching color photographs of the subject. It pairs a very young rhesus monkey with a dove, one cat with a zoo bear and another that became a “seeing-eye cat” for a blind dog (!), an old performing elephant with a stray dog and a lion in the Kenyan wild with a baby oryx. Refreshingly, the author, a science writer, refrains from offering facile analyses of the relationships’ causes or homiletic commentary. Instead, she explains how each companionship began, what is surprising about it and also how some ended, from natural causes or otherwise. There is a regrettable number of exclamation points, but they are in keeping with the overall enthusiastic tone.
The sense of wonder that infuses each simply worded chapter is contagious, and some of the photos are soooo cuuuuute. (animal and word lists) (Nonfiction. 7-9)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7611-7011-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
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