From an assassin bug’s “Coat of Many Corpses” on, a truly astonishing look at some of nature’s most ingenious predatory or...
Disguises are common in nature, but here, Johnson puts the spotlight on nine creatures who take mimicry or camouflage to a whole different level.
From a rain-forest bird called the cinereous mourner, whose fuzzy orange chicks not only look but even move like a certain poisonous caterpillar, to a small spider that builds a big, eerily realistic spider-shaped “puppet” from found materials, most of the lineup here will be new even to well-read young naturalists. Most are also both recent discoveries and the subjects of ongoing study, and after profiling the distinctive capabilities or behaviors of each animal, the author follows up with a “Science behind the Story” introduction to the findings and hypotheses of zoologists engaged in that research. Along with portraits of these scientists in their natural settings (indoors and out), the excellent photos offer revealing views of each insect or other trickster, of select body parts, and of characteristic predators or prey. Rightly expecting that readers are going to want to know more after these tantalizing glimpses, the author closes with professional source notes as well as leads to further general information in print and on the Web.
From an assassin bug’s “Coat of Many Corpses” on, a truly astonishing look at some of nature’s most ingenious predatory or survival strategies. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5124-0087-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Sometimes thrilling, often terrifying, thoroughly immersive.
An anonymous artist’s illustrated journal of an exploratory voyage deep into the Amazon basin.
Following on The Lost Book of Adventure (2019) and presented in the same facsimile format, complete with images of stains, smashed bugs, and small attached botanical specimens, this engrossing diary records a five-week trip upriver—retracing a route from an old hand-drawn map (included as a glued-on foldout) with certain parts tantalizingly rubbed out. What lies in the missing bits? Readers will be as avid to find out as the unnamed and ungendered—but almost certainly European—“Unknown Adventurer” is. Accompanied only by Bibi, a female biologist friend with (fortunately, it turns out) excellent rainforest survival skills, the inexperienced narrator spends much of the arduous trek complaining: “This place isn’t endangered. We are.” But after many encounters with flora and fauna often as dangerous as it is unfamiliar to the adventurer, what lies at journey’s end turns out to be something wonderful, even more precious than gold…but, oh, so vulnerable too. Hundreds of colored-pencil drawings, done largely in blues and greens, accompany text printed in a faux hand-lettered but easily legible type. Sometimes quick and impressionistic, sometimes representational, their subjects include tiny insect specimens, broad landscapes and forest understories, portrait sketches of Bibi (a resident, and possibly Native, Brazilian) and the few locals they meet, and even inventories of camping gear. Keen identifies specific creatures and locales in discreet footnotes, and as “editor” adds comments fore and aft.
Sometimes thrilling, often terrifying, thoroughly immersive. (Illustrated fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5449-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
A moving, realistic tale about a troubled tween finding a path to strength and purpose.
A horse changes the life of a girl burdened by parental dysfunction and denial in this middle-grade novel.
On the outside, sixth grader Hummer’s house on her father’s dairy farm looks pretty normal. What is inside is the reason that no one is ever asked to visit: The girl’s mother, Leona, who sits rocking in front of a TV, is an extreme hoarder. Her anxiety reaches fever pitch if Hummer tries to throw anything away. Every room but 12-year-old Hummer’s is filled with smelly garbage. Her father, Virgil, who has moved into the barn, says that his wife is temporarily going through “a stage” and appears to accept Leona’s excuse that she can’t venture outside the house due to her “bad legs.” This leaves Hummer to see that her mother eats and to secretly do laundry and try to throw away trash without upsetting her. In Gruenberg’s compassionate treatment of each member of this dysfunctional family, there are no villains; it is clear that beneath Virgil’s denial of his wife’s mental deterioration, he cares for Leona. Love fuels Hummer’s protectiveness of her mother, too, despite being taunted at school when she tries to compensate for the shame she feels by making up self-aggrandizing stories about her life. As school ends for the summer, an unexpected catalyst for change arrives one moonlit night: a beautiful runaway Arabian mare. Hummer loves her old pony, but she’s been dreaming of a horse of her own, and this is meant to be, she thinks. Dubbing the mare Fox, Hummer is crushed to learn the animal belongs to a nearby rancher. In this deftly crafted, resonant story, the author shows how a bond develops between Hummer and Fox, how the tween and the rancher, crusty Old Man Riley, come to an understanding based on their mutual love and respect for horses and equestrian skills—and what happens as he becomes aware of the dysfunction shaping the girl’s life. Gruenberg deepens the book’s setting with an authentic depiction of a working dairy farm and horse care and training. The author’s pencil illustrations add visual interest.
A moving, realistic tale about a troubled tween finding a path to strength and purpose.Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-395-51080-3
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Kenda Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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