An intriguing, introspective account that shows why we “should care about penguins.”
A field scientist chronicles her experiences with penguins at the bottom of the world.
For de Gracia, “the crazy joy of remote living” meant five months studying penguins “at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, just above” the Antarctic Circle. Cape Shirreff, a tiny cape at the north end of a rocky peninsula, was her home base, where she and a small crew worked out of a penguin excrement–encrusted cabin. The author brings us along on her adventures, from battling strong, bitter winds to lifting penguin feathers to count their eggs and babysitting fur seal pups. In a compelling blend of memoir, environmental writing, and scientific exploration, de Gracia shows how “Antarctica, beyond the charts and maps of climate change, is, like any other continent, a place of grief, sorrow, joy, love, and survival.” While she was there, she felt a wide range of feelings and emotions, including awe, wonder, isolation, exhaustion, and boredom. The author’s frank assessment of life in this remote region clearly demonstrates her love of that very remoteness, and she is urgent in her discussion of the importance of studying the marine ecosystem. Though the work is often unglamorous—e.g., pumping penguin stomachs to count the amount of krill they have eaten—it is essential to understanding the ongoing impact of climate change there. As de Gracia points out, the ice habitat in the Western Antarctic Peninsula has decreased by nearly half since 1979. Research can help us understand how species are responding to this rapid decline, but the author offers a stern warning. “For scientists drawn to polar lands, the stakes are high: you will probably be heartbroken.” In this meditative narrative from the most remote of outposts, de Gracia reminds us of the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of viewing “ourselves as one species of many and our home as a living, breathing, feeling Earth.”
An intriguing, introspective account that shows why we “should care about penguins.”Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781982182755
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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