Widely angled and unfailingly intriguing.
Insights into how our brains resemble, and are different from, those of other animals.
With this lively overview of the animal kingdom’s “most extraordinary organ,” Couch delivers lucid descriptions of how humans and other creatures perceive the world, interact with their bodies, sleep, learn, remember, and communicate. Punctuating her narrative with comments from a large and racially diverse group of brain scientists and other workers, she visits research sites ranging from an outdoor squirrel lab to a trauma center where people with PTSD form mutually beneficial relationships with abused birds. She explores natural mysteries, such as an apparently immortal jellyfish and another species that sleeps even though it has no brain. The author expands her focus with profiles of a DNA researcher studying the remains of victims of the slave trade on St. Helena and an entomologist whose passion for roller derby has helped her become a better scientist, among others. As if all this isn’t stimulating enough, Couch also provides instructions for keeping a dream journal, testing short-term memory, and tackling other brain-related projects for hands-on readers before closing with a substantial bibliography, source notes, and further reading. Duncan includes anatomical cutaways, charts, and cartoon spot art featuring a diverse cast of young enquirers into the already generous mix of animal photos and portraits.
Widely angled and unfailingly intriguing. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781536229721
Page Count: 160
Publisher: MIT Kids Press/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“In 1875 there were perhaps fifty million of them. Just twenty-five years later nearly every one of them was gone.” The author of many nonfiction books for young people (Bridges; Truck; Giants of the Highways, etc.) tells the story of the American bison, from prehistory, when Bison latifrons walked North America along with the dinosaurs, to the recent past when the Sioux and other plains Indians hunted the familiar bison. Robbins uses historic photographs, etchings, and paintings to show their sad history. To the Native Americans of the plains, the buffalo was central to their way of life. Arriving Europeans, however, hunted for sport, slaughtering thousands for their hides, or to clear the land for the railroad, or farmers. One telling photo shows a man atop a mountain of buffalo skulls. At the very last moment, enough individuals “came to their senses,” and worked to protect the remaining few. Thanks to their efforts, this animal is no longer endangered, but the author sounds a somber note as he concludes: “the millions are gone, and they will never come back.” A familiar story, well-told, and enhanced by the many well-chosen period photographs. (photo credits) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83025-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Here is an adventure in a unique setting. The lively text and lovely watercolors document three and a half months of a summer the artist and author spent at the South Pole, as part of the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. Hooper describes everyday life aboard the research ship Laurence M. Gould, a sturdy orange icebreaker that scientists use to travel between the islands to study the wide variety of animals who come each year to breed and raise their young. An assortment of penguins, elephant seals, giant petrels, huge skuas, and leopard seals hold center stage. Scientists are less important than the serious business of successfully raising young in the short summer season. The author captures the drama of the ice-cold ocean, alive with life: “Swarms of barrel-shaped blue-tinged salps, stuck together in floating chains. Minute creatures with red eyes. Sliding through the water in a curving path like a ribbon.” The artist provides striking paintings of the landscape and the animals in soft washy colors, and quick pencil sketches. The ice is lemon gold with mauve shadows, and the sea a silver gray in the 24-hour day. Animals are expressive and individual. The krill, the tiny shrimp-like creatures that form the backbone of the ocean food chain, appear in luminous glory. The author concludes with a page on global warming, a map of the islands visited, and an index. From cover to cover a personal and informative journey. (Nonfiction. 7-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-7188-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
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