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NATURE'S RULE BREAKERS

Name: NATURE'S RULE BREAKERS
Author: Jessica Fries-Gaither
ISBN: 9781728477206

CREATURES THAT DON'T FIT IN

by Jessica Fries-Gaither ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2023

For in-betweeners everywhere.

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Broad labels don’t always work.

Scientists use categories like herbivore or cold-blooded to sort animals, but this intriguing title makes the point that our binary classifications can be too rigid. Science educator Fries-Gaither discusses 22 animals that don’t fit neatly into the standard groups, instead falling somewhere in between. The Eurasian eagle-owl, for example, is neither nocturnal nor diurnal but crepuscular, meaning it is active at dawn or dusk. In winter, wood frogs may seem dead, with no heartbeat, but in spring they thaw and come alive. She also describes animals that move between fresh and saltwater, those that can be both male and female, and those that have both lungs and gills (or neither). Short paragraphs of text are set on or alongside colorful, close-up stock photographs. The author emphasizes her point: “Our categories don’t fit them.” Readers who’ve been saddled with unwanted labels may appreciate the lesson here. “Standing OUT is IN their nature.” (The design incorporates changing text cases and colors for emphasis.) Fries-Gaither concludes by explaining the utility of categories for general scientific purposes and introducing other examples, including plants and extinct animals. Not your ordinary display of interesting and appealing animals, this offering has an important message for young readers and the adults who care for them.

For in-betweeners everywhere. (glossary, further reading, photo credits) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023

ISBN: 9781728477206

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner

Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

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Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 7, 2024

ISBN: 9781339049052

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
CALL THE BEE DOCTOR!
by Sandra Markle

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COULD YOU EVER DINE WITH DINOSAURS!?
by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Vanessa Morales

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT WOLF RESCUE
by Sandra Markle

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ANIMAL ARCHITECTS

From the Amazing Animals series

by Amy Cherrix ; illustrated by Chris Sasaki ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 7, 2021

An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.

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A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.

Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)