Personable and informative.
A veteran nature photographer best known for studies of smaller creatures sets his (camera) sights on the largest land animals alive.
Showing his usual ability to get the money shots, Bishop puts together a sharply focused gallery of photogenic pachyderms in the wild, ranging from cute calves flapping outsized ears to a huge old African tusker—with memorable views of competing males with trunks intimately intertwined, matriarchal family groups at waterholes, and more. Using anthropomorphic but not inaccurate language in the equally engaging commentary, Bishop describes how gatherings of herds allow younglings to “find new playmates and make friendships that last a lifetime,” notes that individual elephants display intense emotions and have their own personalities, and, along with explaining how elephants communicate with posture and scent as well as sounds, claims they “have a type of language and can even discuss things.” In a lively closing note about how he got some of his shots, he mentions help from a scientist and a Maasai guide, but there are no humans in the photos here. The only real bobbles are the perfunctory index (“African savanna elephant” is listed on nearly every page, for instance, with no subcategories to indicate what is being covered) and the two-item bibliography, so for further information on anatomy or ways elephants are being threatened, pair this title with the likes of Katherine Roy’s How To Be an Elephant (2017). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Personable and informative. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-60580-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
An affectionate picture of bears and bear scientists, capped with a page of moon bear facts and an afterword.
Not one but three roly-poly moon bear cubs star in this true animal rescue tale.
Orphaned by poachers, Yasha, joined later by Shum and Shiksha, are nurtured by Pokrovskaya and another scientist for nearly two years on a game preserve until they were ready to be released into the Siberian wild. Taking a slightly anthropomorphized bear’s-eye point of view (“Yasha was happy with his new home”), Kvatum chronicles the cubs’ development as they learn to forage on their own while playing together and learning to climb trees. She also notes how important it is for human observers to remain aloof—minimizing physical contact and even wearing scent-concealing clothing—to prevent the animals from becoming dependent or domesticated. Looking positively fetching in the big, color photos, shaggy Yasha and his ursine cohorts grow visibly as they ramble through woodsy settings, splash in a river and survive an encounter with a prowling tiger before being deemed ready to live on their own.
An affectionate picture of bears and bear scientists, capped with a page of moon bear facts and an afterword. (map, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: July 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4263-1051-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
“Humans are lucky to have rodents,” Munro argues…and makes her case with equal warmth to hearts and minds.
Twenty-one representatives of the largest mammalian order pose in this fetching portrait gallery.
Each one depicted, all or in part, at actual size, the rodentine array begins with a pocket-watch–size African pygmy jerboa and concludes with the largest member of the clan, the “sweet-looking capybara.” In between, specimens climb the scale past chipmunks and northern flying squirrels to a Norway rat, porcupine, and groundhog. Despite a few outliers such as the naked mole rat and a rather aggressive-looking beaver, Munro’s animals—particularly her impossibly cute guinea pig—strongly exude shaggy, button-eyed appeal. Her subjects may come across as eye candy, but they are drawn with naturalistic exactitude, and in her accompanying descriptive comments, she often relates certain visible features to distinctive habitats and behaviors. She also has a terrific feel for the memorable fact: naked mole rats run as quickly backward in their tunnels as forward; African giant pouched rats have been trained to sniff out mines; the house mouse “is a romantic. A male mouse will sing squeaky love songs to his girlfriend” (that are, fortunately or otherwise, too high for humans to hear). Closing summaries will serve budding naturalists in need of further specifics about sizes, diets, geographical ranges, and the like.
“Humans are lucky to have rodents,” Munro argues…and makes her case with equal warmth to hearts and minds. (websites, index) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3860-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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