Pink is for Blobfish (review)

TITLE:   Pink is for Blobfish: Discovering the World’s Perfectly Pink Animals 

AUTHOR:  Jess Keating

PUBLISHER:  Alfred A. Knopf

COPYRIGHT DATE:  2016

AGE RANGE:  7-11 years

LEXILE LEVEL:  NC1040L

ACCELERATED READER:  1.0 point

SUMMARY:

          If you think pink is only for bubblegum and princess dresses—it’s time to rethink pink.  Pink is for blobfish and pygmy seahorses and naked mole rats and hairy squat lobsters.  Pink is used to camouflage predators and prey.  Pink is also used to draw attention to itself. 

            This book is also full of interesting animal facts, such as:  “If a (pink) sea star comes across prey that is too big to fit in its mouth, it will stick its stomach out through its mouth, wrap it around its meal, digest it, and then draw the goopy, digested mass back into its body.” (p 23)

CRITIQUE:   

         

          Great photos!  This book was a great mix of animal facts and humor.

REVIEW:

          Kirkus states, “These texts will challenge the intended audience. They’re full of interesting but likely unfamiliar terms: carrion, deforestation, eusocial, negative phototaxis. These are printed in boldface in the text and defined in context and in a glossary. There are helpful suggestions for further research... An intriguing approach for animal-fact enthusiasts.”  (Kirkus, 2015, Nov. 15)

AWARDS:

• “A Monarch Award Nominee (2018, Illinois)
• School Library Journal’s ‘Fuse Eight’ Best Science and Nature Book (2016)
• A Wisconsin State Reading List Committee Favorite (2017)
• An Amazon ‘Best Book of the Year so far’ Pick (2016)” (Keating, J. n.d. 

RELATED MATERIAL:

Guiberson, B. Z. (2015). The Most Amazing Creature in the Sea. New York:  Henry Holt                  and Company.

          This book is sure to amaze young readers with its strange facts about ocean creatures.  It reiterates the fact that there are still so many creatures of the deep of which we have no knowledge…yet.  Sure to tantalize the curiosity of young inquisitive minds.

Roy, K. (2014). Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s                          Farallon Islands. New York: David Macaulay Studio, Roaring Brook Press.

          For more information about oceanic animals, read Neighborhood Sharks.  This nonfiction book takes an in-depth look at the body mechanics of the Great White Shark as it hunts its favorite meal:  seals. 

Nivola, C. A. (2012). Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle. New                 York: Frances Foster Books, Farrar Straus Giroux.

          For young readers curious about studying ocean life, read about Sylvia Earle, who began her life of studying the ocean when she was a child living near its coast. 

REFERENCES:

Keating, J. (n.d.). Jess Keating: Author - Zoologist - Bookdragon. Retrieved from https://jesskeating.com/praise/

Kirkus Review. (2015, November 15). Pink is for Blobfish: Discovering the World’s Perfectly Pink Animals. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jess-keating/pink-is-for-blobfish/

Who Was Louis Braille? by Margaret Frith (Review)

TITLE:   Who Was Louis Braille? 

AUTHOR:  Margaret Frith

PUBLISHER:  Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Group 

COPYRIGHT DATE:  2014

AGE RANGE:  Grades 3-5

LEXILE LEVEL:  780L

ACCELERATED READER:   1.0

SUMMARY:

           Louis Braille was born in France in 1809.  When he was born, he could see.  When he was three years old, he was keeping his dad company in his dad’s workshop.  His father made leather saddles and harnesses for horses.  His father stepped outside for a minute and curious little Louis picked up one of his father’s sharp tools.  He tried to copy what his father was doing, but ended up poking the tool in his own eye.  Both of his eyes became infected causing Louis to become blind at the age of four years old.

            At first, Louis attended his local school.  He would listen to the teacher and he would rely on his memory to learn, but the minute the other school children were told to get out a book, Louis was left out.  There were no books for him to read.  After a time, Louis was very fortunate to be able to attend the Royal Institute for the Blind—the only school of its kind in France.  Finally, Louis might learn to read!  Reading for the blind at that time meant that entire letters were raised above the page, causing the reader to use a few fingers to feel the shape of the letter.  It was slow-going.  Louis kept thinking, “There must be a better way.”  Eventually, he found one.  It was based off of “night-reading” that soldiers would use to decipher messages in the dark—because, a soldier who stood by a light to read was making a target out of himself.  Night reading involved raised dashes and dots, not full letters.

          That was Louis’ breakthrough:  raised dots!  He translated the alphabet using raised dots—that way, people of different languages could use this same system—which later became known as the “Braille” system of reading.

CRITIQUE:   

          A great lesson in history and in describing how a blind person could read and write quicker by not having to rely on feeling the full letter. 

REVIEW:

          I was unable to find any professional reviews (such as Kirkus or Publishers Weekly) on this title which is part of a series of similarly-titled books offered by Apple Books.  I was only able to find customer reviews of the book. 

          Customers who purchased this book on Amazon.com gave it 4.5/5.0 stars overall.  The comments were mostly from parents of children who read the book.  One comment from a parent read, “Love these easy to read chapter books, especially biographies. These books are great for reading with unmotivated readers, for they are somewhat shorter than regular chapter books and they have narrowed down the information so as to be easier to read. (Amazon, 2015)

AWARDS:

2018 Bluestem Nominee (Illinois)

RELATED MATERIAL:

          For more books in the Who Was-? series, check out the following titles:

Brailler, J. (2002). Who Was Albert Einstein?. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap.

           Albert Einstein was a scientist in the field of physics.  He was a genius, but that did not mean he excelled in school.

Fraden, D. B. (2002). Who Was Ben Franklin?. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap.

          American Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, was a very busy man.  He was a diplomat for America in France.  He was a signor of the Declaration of Independence, and he was an inventor.  Franklin invented many things:  bifocals, swimming fins, and the Franklin stove, to name a few.

Thompson, G. (2003). Who Was Helen Keller?. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap.

           Like Louis Braille, Helen Keller was born with sight.  They both lost their ability to see in their early childhood.  Braille lost his sight as a result of an infection caused by an injury to his eye.  Keller lost her ability to see due to a childhood illness, which left her deaf as well.  Both Keller and Braille had to rely on their sense of touch to learn to read.  Braille created a system of reading for the blind that would later aid young Keller in her ability to learn to read.

REFERENCES:

Amazon.com. (2015, July 27). Who Was Louis Braille? Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Who-Louis-Braille-Margaret-Frith/dp/0448479036