More science than adventure, this is a challenging addition to the Science in the Field series.
Ospreys, severely affected by DDT in the 1960s, now serve as indicators for the success of pollution remediation on a Superfund cleanup site.
Scientists from the Montana Osprey Project invite the public to share their enthusiasm for these amazing raptors, bringing young people to visit the nests and maintaining two webcams while carrying on the work of collecting and analyzing samples of blood and feathers from osprey chicks along the Clark Fork River. Patent introduces the birds and the project, explaining environmental issues resulting from mining in the Clark Fork area, various dangers for ospreys, and the research. A chapter of osprey observations done through Web cameras, watching two pairs raise their chicks, is followed by an explanation of the problem of mercury and then a description of the attachment of transmitters to these birds to research migration patterns. There’s a great deal of information crammed into this title; many sidebars and special sections interrupt the exposition. Readers without a solid science background may have difficulty following the steps of data analysis. Libraries still holding Patent and Muñoz’s Ospreys (1993) will find that simpler title a helpful overview of the species, but this one demonstrates how studying these birds may help address some knottier scientific problems.
More science than adventure, this is a challenging addition to the Science in the Field series. (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-23268-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
A riveting adventure about an encounter with one of nature’s most formidable manifestations. Beard (The Flimflam Man, 1998, etc.) presents a suspenseful account of Lucille and her brother Natt’s experience during an afternoon tornado; readers will keep turning the pages until the climactic conclusion. Natt and Lucille are left alone in shelter of the cellar during the storm as their mother goes to assist an elderly neighbor. With quiet courage the two face the storm, relying upon each other for moral and physical support. Beard’s lyrical descriptions of Natt and Lucille’s experiences lend a you-are-there immediacy to the tale, while Carpenter’s generously colored artwork vibrates with the intensity of nature unleashed. Turquoise skies quickly turn to dark indigo as the storm approaches. Deep, foreboding grays predominate as Natt and Lucille wait out the storm; with the return of lighter skies and colors, the children emerge from their shelter. A rousing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 10, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-37977-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
This bittersweet tale takes readers into a dark, ancient woods in the American Northwest. A father and son make this forest their special place to commune with the wild, to visit with the creatures that live therein, and to revel in the mesmerizing views. One day they find spots painted on the trees, markings for loggers. The boy and his father and family ignite a small grassroots resistance to the felling of the trees. They fight for something they believe in—it is almost a sacred obligation for them—but they are unsuccessful: the laws governing private property prevail. The trees are cut and, luckily, the father and son find another stand in which to take solace. The Rands (A Home for Spooky, 1998, etc.) offer a bright fusion of the cautionary and the inspirational, and the artwork is effective in conveying the outsized majesty of the old growth. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5466-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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