Category: Science

The Black Mambas

The World’s First All-Woman Anti-Poaching Unit

by Kelly Crull

Millbrook Press, 2025. 42 pages.
Review written May 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

The story told in this nonfiction picture book (for upper elementary school readers) is just plain cool.

The Black Mambas are a group of women park rangers who protect the wildlife of the Olifants West Nature Reserve in South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park.

The book explains the problem of poachers and how and why animals living in the reserve were being killed. Then it talks about local young women being recruited and learning the job – and the training and physically hard work they do to detect signs of poachers and stop them. Women are empowered to protect their communities.

This book is super informative and lavishly illustrated with photographs. It’s also inviting to young readers. Right at the front, there are head shots of twenty members of the Black Mambas, with their first names and the question, “Can you find all of us in the book?” They have little quizzes like identifying animal tracks and thinking how you would patrol given a map where poacher tracks have been found. (Note: Some of the quizzes seem a little too hard. On the page asking you to find “all four snares in this area,” I couldn’t find them at all and didn’t see a place with answers. Other simpler quizzes, like the one matching tracks, did have answers on the page.)

I especially liked the page with the Code of Honor. The reader is asked to “Stand proud and say these words with us.” The Code of Honor begins:

I am a Mamba hear me clear,
Poachers be warned, I have no fear.
Fauna and flora I pledge to protect,
There is always something to detect.
Eyes and ears serve the ground,
Here and there and all around.
From dusk to dawn, this promise I keep,
Protect the voiceless while they sleep.

The book includes photos of things they recovered at a poacher camp, as well as close-ups of the animals they protect (which are still dangerous).

They also have an educational component, teaching the children of surrounding villages to protect and take pride in their animal neighbors.

This is a gorgeous book about a group of women doing powerful and valuable work.

kellycrull.com
transfrontierafrica.org/blackmambas

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Omnibird

An Avian Investigator’s Handbook

by Giselle Clarkson

Gecko Press, 2025. 96 pages.
Review written May 12, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Omnibird: An Avian Investigator’s Handbook is packed with entertaining and informative content to help kids learn about the birds all around them.

The “Omnibird” idea is reflected in spreads on bird anatomy that identify the parts of a bird, inside and out. Many are labeled “Optional,” such as caruncles (featherless fleshy bits), spurs (sharp points for fighting), and a comb. Several parts refer to a display of many options on another page – such as the aforementioned caruncles, as well as beaks and feet.

Inside, we see how birds are quite different from us, with their small hindbrain and forebrain, their gizzard, their many neck vertebrae, the syrinx (voice box), and optional crop.

All this information about birds in general takes up the front half of the book, and then we get to see spreads about specific types of birds. It’s all told with humor, speech bubbles, clever drawings, and is super interesting and engaging. There are lots of practical side cartoons, such as “How to Usher a Bird Outdoors” “How to Act Around a Scary Bird,” and “How to Pick Up a Chicken.”

Yes, this book will help kids identify particular birds, but more importantly, it will make kids want to identify them. Reading this book presents birds as fascinating creatures who live all around us and whose bodies and behaviors reflect how they live.

A possible drawback is that the book is too large for a kid to take outside with them on a whim, but all the information packed on the large pages is worth the trade-off. This book is perfect for kids who love to pore over big books of facts – and then they can apply what they’ve learned to investigate the birds in their own neighborhoods.

giselledraws.com
geckopress.com

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How to Hatch

A Gosling’s Guide to Breaking Free

written by Sara Holly Ackerman
illustrated by Galia Bernstein

Alfred A. Knopf, 2026. 32 pages.
Review written February 6, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I was a Hatch before I became an Eklund, so books with my former name in the title always catch my eye. When I sat down to read this book, I was completely delighted.

This straightforward nonfiction picture book shows the steps of a gosling hatching simply and clearly, with large and engaging illustrations.

Endpapers at the front (frontpapers?) show two geese building a nest, and the title page shows the mother goose smiling and revealing eggs beneath her. Then as the main book starts, we’re focused in on what’s going on inside a single gosling’s egg.

I like children’s books where I learn something. The very first step is something I hadn’t known. The main text, addressed to the gosling, goes like this:

Step One: BREATHE!

First you need to prick the air cell.
Aim your egg tooth. Jab. Inhale.

Ahhhhh. If that feels good, you won’t believe how much air is on the other side of the shell.

But that’s for another day.

The sidebar gives more detail (still simple and clear), explaining about the pipping muscle at the back of the gosling’s neck that starts twitching, about the egg tooth and the air cell, about how the embryo’s lungs start working – and that the embryo will need to rest after this, sometimes a whole day.

The rest of the pages follow this pattern – encouraging words telling the gosling what to do, with more detailed explanations on the side.

And we get the full story of what it takes to break out of an eggshell from the inside.

First you need a hole for air, then you need to turn and peck to open a way out. And lots and lots of resting in between.

And it’s all told about – so interesting – with a focus on what’s going on inside the egg. And ends up with adorable gosling pictures.

Many elementary school classrooms have egg hatching projects. This book will be a perfect accompaniment. It sticks to the topic, approaches it simply but full of facts, and shows the kid reader an amazing look inside an egg.

sarahollyackerman.com
dancingkangaroo.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Toes, Teeth, and Tentacles

A Curious Counting Book

by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

Little, Brown and Company, 2025. 36 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review

I’ve long been a big fan of the work of Steve Jenkins and his wife Robin Page, so I was saddened by his death in 2021. I’m glad that Robin Page is keeping his memory alive by creating new books with his art (and it’s not clear how much she’s contributed to the art side).

Steve Jenkins is the one who makes incredibly realistic images of animals using cut paper techniques. Then his books are the ever-popular books full of facts about animals. Yes, I’d already noticed that some of the images have already appeared in other books. In this case, I don’t know how many of the images are new and how many are reused, but whatever the source, the result is delightful.

I tend to think that most animals have similar features to humans – two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth. Two arms, two legs, five fingers and toes on each limb. Sure, I know about octopuses and spiders and insects, but there’s a basic pattern, right?

Well, this book disrupts those ideas of mine. It’s a counting book – of animal features.

We start with the one glowing spine on the angler fish, one sac in the nose of the hooded seal, one ear of the praying mantis. Then we look at the moray eel with two sets of jaws and the slow loris with two tongues. Then the squid with three hearts, the tuatara with three eyes, and the Jackson’s chameleon with three horns.

And so it goes. For each number up to ten (which includes the rattlesnake’s rattles and the sea pig’s legs), we’re given four or five examples. Then we’re told about several animals with bigger numbers of things, like the twenty-two tentacles that ring the nose of the star-nosed mole and the 18,000 teeth of the giant African land snail. A chart at the back gives more details and facts about each animal featured.

Books of strange animal facts are always a hit with many kids, and this is a fun and surprising way to organize those facts.

stevejenkinsbooks.com
robinpagebooks.com
lbyr.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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In the World of Whales

by Michelle Cusolito
illustrated by Jessica Lanan

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 44 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This stunningly beautiful picture book tells the true story of a free diver who encountered a pod of sperm whales surrounding a just-born baby whale calf with the umbilical cord still attached.

The story is told poetically, with both the diver and the calf having to go to the surface for air periodically.

The whales peer at the man
with egg-shaped eyes the size of tangerines.
Their school-bus-big bodies
with rumpled backs
and bulbous heads
could crush the man in a flash.
Wild animals protect their young.
Is he in danger?

On the next spread, he copies the whales’ movements to be non-threatening, and more whales arrive to the group. Then, after he and the calf breathe:

The mother nudges her offspring toward the newcomers.
One by one,
she introduces the baby to the community.

The man watches in wonder, and hears the clicks of the whales communicating with one another, including the newborn.

It all builds to a doubled-spread with pages that fold out.

Then, the mother nudges the calf toward the man.
She presents her wrinkly baby as if to say,
“Meet the newest member of our family.”

Six pages at the back tell more about sperm whales, more about free diving, and provide resources including this page of photos from the actual encounter in 2014, and this amazing video of the encounter.

The book captures the magic and wonder of the moment, and leaves you, like the original diver, in awe.

michellecusolito.com
jessicalanan.com
HolidayHouse.com

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Butt or Face?

Super Gross Butts

by Kari Lavelle

Sourcebooks Explore, 2025. 36 pages.
Review written November 17, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Kari Lavelle has got a good thing going, and I’m glad she’s not stopping. And I can’t seem to stop reviewing them. The fact is, you’ve already got ingredients that add up to a huge hit with kids for librarians book talking:

— The word “Butt”
— A simple interactive quiz where kids can shout out the answer (Bonus: One possible answer is “Butt”!)
— Photographs of animals
— Intriguing animal facts about unusual animals

And with this third book in the series, she’s added one more sure winner:

— Many of those facts about animals are super gross.

Some examples are the greater short-horned lizard that squirts blood from its eyes, the silver-spotted skipper caterpillar that catapults its excrement at predators, and the tortoise beetle larva that makes armor out of poop.

The format is the same as the earlier books: Show a close-up picture of part of an animal. Then ask: Is it a BUTT or a FACE? Turn the page to see the full picture of the animal and the answer to the question. There are additional text boxes on the picture headlined “Face the Facts” or “Beyond the Backside.” A chart and map at the back shows where each animal comes from, their scientific name, and what they eat.

There are plenty of kids out there who love learning strange or better yet super gross animal facts. This one adds lots of fun to the mix. See if you can resist guessing which pictures are butts and which are faces. (I got most of them right, but not all of them.)

karilavelle.com
sourcebookskids.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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