The Superpower Field Guide
Osriches
by Rachel Poliquin
illustrated by Nicholas John Frith
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. 96 pages.
Review written April 23, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review
This is the second Superpower Field Guide, and I just put the first one written, Beavers on hold. These are some of the most entertaining books about animals I’ve ever read.
The tone is conversational, directly addressing the reader. Although the writer includes scientific terms, she starts out with kid-friendly descriptions, so it’s all easier to understand.
To give you an example, here she is talking about Superpower #7, the Impossible Ever-Flow Lung:
First, bird lungs aren’t balloons. They are stiff tubes. The fancy word for these tubes is parabronchi, but I’ll just call them tubes. At either end, these tubes are connected to balloons – seven to twelve in total, depending on the bird. Ostriches have ten. These balloons take up about a fifth of the space in a bird’s body – that’s a lot! They squeeze around a bird’s organs; some are even inside its hollow bones.
Now, bird balloons are part of the whole lung system, but they are not actually lungs. And they are not made from millions of tiny alveoli like your lungs. They are just basic balloons. They all have names, but I’ll keep it simple. I’ll divide them into two balloon teams: TEAM FRESH and TEAM STALE.
What follow is an explanation, with diagrams, of how breathing works for ostriches (and other birds) so that fresh air is always flowing through their lungs, whether they’re breathing in or out – an amazing fact that I certainly didn’t know before reading this book.
Rachel Poliquin is good at making amazing facts about animals sound amazing. That’s the whole focus of the Superpower Field Guides. The superpowers she attributes to ostriches are: Colossal Orbs of Telescopic Vision, Thighs of Thunder, Toe Claws of Death, Super-fantastic Elastic Striders, Two-toed Torpedoes, Do-it-all Dino Flaps, the Impossible Ever-Flowing Lung, Epic Endurance, the Egg of Wonder, and the Hydro-hoarding Heat Shield.
Reading these books, you do realize how surprising some of these abilities truly are. These are the kinds of books I want to read more of because they’re so interesting, and I have no doubt they’ll have the same effect on kids.
rachelpoliquin.com
nicholasjohnfrith.com
hmhco.com
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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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