2011 Finalist Reviews

WINNER
A Book that Works: A Review of How Animals Work, by David Burnie

Published by DK Publishing (2010)

Reviewed by John P. Roche, Ph.D., Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute

How do animals work? That is, how do they function, and how do they overcome the many formidable obstacles that they face in the physical and biological worlds in which they live? How Animals Work, by David Burnie, does an admirable job of introducing readers to these fascinating questions.

How Animals Work opens with a chapter on body basics, introducing the diversity of body-plan organization in the animal world. The book closes with a chapter called "The Animal World", which summarizes the evolutionary diversity of animal life, including coverage not only of vertebrates, but also of invertebrates, with particular foci on mollusks and arthropods. The rest of the book is organized into chapters on key problems animals must solve: moving, performing basic life support like breathing and surviving temperature extremes, perceiving, eating, communicating, and mating. For each of these key problems, David Burnie provides a series of two-page introductions to sub-topics, each including a short, general summary, and then providing several illustrative examples and concepts, all strengthened with superb photographs. For example, the chapter on communication, called "Keeping in Contact", includes sub-topics titled "signaling by sight", "calls and songs", "signals in scent", "staying in touch", "attracting a mate", and "pairing up". These sub-topics provide rigorous insights into the functional challenges animals face, and are effective in capturing the interest of young readers.

This book is written with accuracy, care, and finesse, providing coverage of an important taxonomic group that has evolved and diversified over the last 700 million years. Furthermore, it enjoys the tremendous asset--an asset that is a hallmark of all DK Books-- of being filled with captivating photographs. This is a book that is highly recommended for both children and adults. In fact, it admirably succeeds in serving a wide age range of readers. As a winner of the 2011 Animal Behavior Society Outstanding Children's Book Award, it was overwhelming chosen as the top choice by students in third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade classrooms across North America, and yet it offers a level of rigor and interest that is compelling also for adults, including trained scientists. If you ever wonder about how animals function and overcome obstacles--and who doesn't?--you will thoroughly enjoy this wonderful book.

Review of Tricky Behavior, by Kimberley Jane Pryor.

Published by Marshall Cavendish (first published in the United States in 2010)

Reviewed by Michelle Solensky, Ph.D., Jamestown College

                                                                                                                                
Animals do the strangest things, and Kimberley Jane Pryor has assembled a fascinating collection of weird behaviors used by a variety of animals to avoid becoming a predator's lunch.  Tricky Behavior is one of six outstanding books in the Animal Attack and Defense series.  In this book, readers can learn about the bizarre and amazing ways in which animals defend themselves by surprising or fooling potential predators. 

Many readers will recognize some of the animal defenses highlighted, including grouping together (fish, penguins), emitting noxious odors (skunks, stink bugs), and playing dead (possums, hognose snake).  Even for those familiar with these strategies, this book offers wonderfully colorful photographs to illustrate these behaviors, and a brief yet detailed and entertaining description of each animal and its behavior.  Even readers who are familiar with defensive tactics like fleeing or freezing will still find something new to learn about in this book: birds that vomit on potential intruders, lizards that shoot blood from their eyes, fish that mask their scent by secreting a mucus sleeping bag, and ground squirrels that mask their odors with rattlesnake scent.  

For example, one 2-page layout features animals that blow themselves up to look larger (porcupine fish) or anchor themselves tightly into rock crevices (chuckwallas). This book is certainly entertaining enough to read cover to cover, but also works well when read a few pages at a time, since each page features a self-contained description of one animal and its tricky behavior.  This book is a great read for upper elementary school children, and for older kids and adults who enjoy learning about the crazy things that animals do.

Published by Annick Press

Reviewed by Abby L. Schwarz, Ph.D., Dandelion Environmental Consulting

Peter Christie, the author of Animal Snoops, has chosen a great topic to get young readers interested in animals: how and why animals monitor each other's behaviour.  He presents a great variety of examples, organised into categories: mate-finding, winning fights, finding prey and avoiding becoming prey, and figuring out social relationships. Some are relatively simple (e.g. eavesdropping); others show animals using deception, mimicry, and counter-espionage.  Sensory channels are likewise varied: hearing, olfaction, vision, and electric pulse detection. Exotic animals (e.g., the Uganda kob) and domestic ones (e.g., the eastern grey squirrel), terrestrial, marine and fresh water species all make up the "snooper parade". Each example is illustrated with cartoons by Cat MacInnes, as well as photographs. 

The explanatory context for all these examples is evolution, including fitness, which is presented in understated, easy language. I thought the author did a creditable job in including this in a book for grades 3 through 5!  Most examples of mate choice are explained in terms of sexual selection. However, the author says little about the relative importance of genetics and learning in producing successful snoopers, except for the example of bonnet macaques listening to langur warning sounds. Older children may wish more discussion here. 

The book contains two major errors, one in the illustrations (p. 11: the photo is of the jewel cichlid, Hemichromis bimaculatus, but the text is about convict cichlid, Amatitlania nigrofasciata) and one in the text (p. 50: "Fish can't hear . . ." in reference to killer whales hunting salmon).  Salmon cannot hear the high frequencies of killer whale echolocation calls, but they can hear lower frequencies, and the author's statement "Fish can't hear . . ." is just plain wrong.

In my opinion, it was unnecessary to describe how humans stage fights between Betta splendens males and gamble on the outcome (p. 33) when discussing the role of fighting in establishing a dominance hierarchy in these fish.  It would have been enough just to discuss how the fish themselves respond to watching conspecifics fight. If the object was to increase the interest of readers, it was poorly chosen.

In spite of these errors, Animal Snoops is a lively book, full of information. It is sure to arouse interest and curiosity in many young readers.