A compelling and eye-opening story of the interconnected worlds of humans and dolphins that’s full of engaging detail and...
In this middle-grade adaptation of Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins (2015), Casey escapes her city life and journeys around the world to better understand how dolphins live, think, and relate to humans.
After experiencing a life-changing swim with dolphins, Casey puts her job on hold and begins researching and writing about cetaceans. The book includes interviews with experts, her experiences traveling the world, and fascinating tidbits, including how dolphins evolved from “mammals that resembled small, hooved wolves.” She encourages readers to delight in the animals’ gifts by highlighting their brain science and complex personalities. With approachable prose and engrossing detail, she describes everything from how a dolphin pod saved a suicidal girl to how their sonar works. Casey is tough on the marine-park industry, poachers, man-made underwater acoustic smog, and humanity’s pollution of the Earth and its waters. She writes explicitly about the slaughter of dolphin populations at the hands of humans, candidly addressing their extermination in Taiji, Japan. The final chapter, on dolphins in Minoan art, is an unsatisfying tangent even though the overall book is a riveting look at the world of dolphins.
A compelling and eye-opening story of the interconnected worlds of humans and dolphins that’s full of engaging detail and vivid language. (acknowledgments, selected bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-0085-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
This glossy, colorful title in the “I Want To Be” series has visual appeal but poor organization and a fuzzy focus, which limits its usefulness. Each double-paged layout introduces a new topic with six to eight full-color photographs and a single column of text. Topics include types of environmentalists, eco-issues, waste renewal, education, High School of Environmental Studies, environmental vocabulary, history of environmentalism, famous environmentalists, and the return of the eagle. Often the photographs have little to do with the text or are marginal to the topic. For example, a typical layout called “Some Alternative Solutions” has five snapshots superimposed on a double-page photograph of a California wind farm. The text discusses ways to develop alternative forms of energy and “encourage environmentally friendly lifestyles.” Photos include “a healer who treats a patient with alternative therapy using sound and massage,” and “the Castle,” a house built of “used tires and aluminum cans.” Elsewhere, “Did You Know . . . ” shows a dramatic photo of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but the text provides odd facts such as “ . . . that in Saudi Arabia there are solar-powered pay phones in the desert?” Some sections seem stuck in, a two-page piece on the effects of “El Niño” or 50 postage-stamp–sized photos of endangered species. The author concludes with places to write for more information and a list of photo credits. Pretty, but little here to warrant purchase. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-201862-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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