A grab bag of bio-wonders.
A ramble through “the totally bizarre, ultra-epic, sometimes disgusting world of biology.”
With unflagging zest the hosts of American Public Media’s Brains On! podcast take on dozens of such need-to-know topics as whether plants can perceive sound, “why…frogs’ tongues stretch so far,” why we dream, and “are dogs self-aware?” Along with introducing real scientists working in the actual Dog Cognition Lab and elsewhere, the authors—depicted as small cartoon figures throughout—cast sidelights on historical hoaxes, tuck in “mystery photo” close-ups, and also pair up lots of unlikely adversaries in smack-down–style contests. For the latter, they lay out facts about each and leave it to readers to judge winners: “Which stinker is cooler: Durian or Corpse Flower?” The survey includes breezy ventures into the animal and plant kingdoms, quick rides through select systems of the Bodyland amusement park, and a closing voyage to the teeming realm of microbiota for ganders at microscopic mites, fungi, and bacteria (but not viruses). Even scientifically savvy readers may find the small-print bibliography more than a bit on the technical and scholarly side. Still, it’s always better to challenge an audience than underestimate it. Recurring cast members in the illustrations present White; other cartoon figures include people of color.
A grab bag of bio-wonders. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-42829-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Heaping helpings of eye candy for panda lovers.
A trove of panda portraits lights up a survey of international efforts to increase the populations and conserve the habitats of this most photogenic of animals.
The chief draw will be the page-after-page presentation of impossibly cute panda newborns, roly-poly cubs, and sedentary adults chomping away at bamboo in both zoos and natural settings—with further views of panda toys, cartoons, and animal workers in panda suits to disguise their human forms. Jazynka and Raven-Ellison’s accompanying commentary fills budding conservationists in on the panda family’s ancestry and modern members, panda behavior and life cycles, how the animals are cared for in captivity, and particularly on how those born in captivity are “rewilded” (thus the suits) in preparation for releasing them into their natural habitats. The focus shifts back and forth from zoos, mostly in the United States, to nature preserves in China, with frequent inset profiles of panda researchers in both hemispheres and brief Q-and-A sessions. Project ideas for young activists ranging from fundraising activities to wildlife photography cap each chapter, rounded off with healthy lists of organizations and sources of information at the end. The simultaneously publishing Mission: Shark Rescue, by Ruth A. Musgrave, also with Raven-Ellison, covers much the same sort of material with rather more teeth.
Heaping helpings of eye candy for panda lovers. (maps, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2088-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Best for casual browsing; for systematic, reliable information, look elsewhere.
A broad overview of the biosphere, with hundreds of stylish plant and animal portraits.
Kitted out with a foldout poster jacket, multiple ribbons, and a color-coded system of margin tabs, this oversized album collects 67 topical “charts” presenting, in no apparent order, surveys of world habitats and ocean zones; introductions to taxonomy and food webs; arrays of bird beaks, feet, eggs, nests, and feathers; group portraits of related organisms and closer looks at selected single ones. Animals are the main focus, though other kingdoms draw at least some notice. Davey’s digital illustrations look like cut-paper collages—flat of surface and perspective, composed of multiple elements of diverse hue and pattern. The figures are generally recognizable and capable of putting on a grand show, as with one display of birds of paradise and another of tropical reef denizens. The lighting, though, is murky throughout, sometimes to the extent that physical details are obscured. Similarly, captions and blocks of explanatory text, which are all in minuscule type, are hard to see against the darker backgrounds. More problematically, readers will be left in the dark by unamplified claims that inorganic things are “not made of cells but of tiny things called particles,” and “some fish are more closely related to other vertebrates than they are to other fish.”
Best for casual browsing; for systematic, reliable information, look elsewhere. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84780-782-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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