Webb, an ornithologist and artist, describes and illustrates her two-month stay at the bottom of the world, studying a breeding colony of Adélie penguins on Cape Royds, an island off the coast of Antarctica. Though the picture-book format and watercolor illustrations may attract a younger audience, the dense text is intended for upper-middle-grade readers who will find much to savor. Most of the diary describes the day-to-day activities of working scientists who were studying the nesting colonies and the dynamics of the frozen ecosystem. Webb describes the ingenious and sometimes-messy methods used to gather data; for example, in the weekly “diet sampling,” penguins with full bellies are captured, filled up with water, and forced to vomit so researchers can determine what they are feeding on. New technologies are used, too, to determine what penguins eat, how far they swim, how weather conditions affect each colony, and why some colonies are growing larger while others are shrinking. There are transmitters attached to them—radio receivers, which record sounds—and electronic weigh bridges are used to determine how much they’ve eaten. Traditional flipper bands are still used to track movement. Throughout, there are dozens of exquisitely drawn watercolor paintings. Sometimes as many as a dozen thumb-sized drawings appear on a single page, showing penguins posturing and preening or providing the reader with a sequence of events; one terrific example shows a penguin sneaking up to steal a rock from another’s nest. Other full-page paintings show the vast white and gray landscape with evidence of previous explorations, the base camp, or the dappled white and gray ice flows and ocean. The lack of an index limits the usefulness of the title for school assignments, but science enthusiasts will enjoy this attractively illustrated look at science at work. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-395-92291-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals.
Is dolphin-assisted therapy so beneficial to patients that it’s worth keeping a wild dolphin captive?
Twelve-year-old Lily has lived with her emotionally distant oncologist stepfather and a succession of nannies since her mother died in a car accident two years ago. Nannies leave because of the difficulty of caring for Adam, Lily’s severely autistic 4-year-old half brother. The newest, Suzanne, seems promising, but Lily is tired of feeling like a planet orbiting the sun Adam. When she meets blind Zoe, who will attend the same private middle school as Lily in the fall, Lily’s happy to have a friend. However, Zoe’s take on the plight of the captive dolphin, Nori, used in Adam’s therapy opens Lily’s eyes. She knows she must use her influence over her stepfather, who is consulting on Nori’s treatment for cancer (caused by an oil spill), to free the animal. Lily’s got several fine lines to walk, as she works to hold onto her new friend, convince her stepfather of the rightness of releasing Nori, and do what’s best for Adam. In her newest exploration of animal-human relationships, Rorby’s lonely, mature heroine faces tough but realistic situations. Siblings of children on the spectrum will identify with Lily. If the tale flirts with sentimentality and some of the characters are strident in their views, the whole never feels maudlin or didactic.
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-67605-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
A skillful sequel that adds new layers to a coming-of-age story.
In this follow-up to Ghetto Cowboy (2011), 14-year-old Cole convinces his mother to let him stay in Philadelphia with his father and beloved horse, Boo, instead of returning to Detroit.
Cole and his dad, Harper, are still learning to navigate their father-son relationship after years of being estranged. As they figure out their new arrangement, Harper says Cole has to get a job to help earn his keep as well as Boo’s. Working as a stable hand at a nearby military academy, Cole meets young cadets who are strikingly different from him in socio-economic class and attitudes—and who seem to have it out for him from the start. Fortunately, Cole also meets and befriends Ruthie, a Black girl on the polo team who shares his love for horses. She is in a minority at the school due to her race and sex; the friendship offers mutual support. While working there, Cole develops a growing attraction to Ruthie as well as an interest in possibly attending the academy someday. But is this world just too different from his own for him to even get a foot in the door? And is he ready to leave everything he’s known behind? In this entry, Neri gives readers a look into another type of equestrian life while maintaining the tone and style readers appreciated in Cole’s cowboy journey, including an evocative voice and situational code-switching. Final illustrations not seen.
A skillful sequel that adds new layers to a coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0711-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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