{"id":37568,"date":"2024-05-10T21:31:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T01:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37568"},"modified":"2024-05-10T21:31:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T01:31:55","slug":"review-of-the-superpower-field-guide-ostriches-by-rachel-poliquin-illustrated-by-nicholas-john-frith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37568","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Superpower Field Guide: Ostriches, by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Nicholas John Frith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Superpower Field Guide<\/p>\n

Osriches<\/em><\/p>\n

by Rachel Poliquin
\nillustrated by Nicholas John Frith<\/p>\n

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. 96 pages.
\nReview written April 23, 2020, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This is the second Superpower Field Guide<\/em>, and I just put the first one written, Beavers<\/em> on hold. These are some of the most entertaining books about animals I\u2019ve ever read.<\/p>\n

The tone is conversational, directly addressing the reader. Although the writer includes scientific terms, she starts out with kid-friendly descriptions, so it\u2019s all easier to understand. <\/p>\n

To give you an example, here she is talking about Superpower #7, the Impossible Ever-Flow Lung:<\/p>\n

First, bird lungs aren\u2019t balloons. They are stiff tubes. The fancy word for these tubes is parabronchi<\/strong><\/em>, but I\u2019ll just call them tubes. At either end, these tubes are connected to balloons \u2013 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\u2019s body \u2013 that\u2019s a lot! They squeeze around a bird\u2019s organs; some are even inside its hollow bones.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll keep it simple. I\u2019ll divide them into two balloon teams: TEAM FRESH<\/strong><\/em> and TEAM STALE<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u2019re breathing in or out \u2013 an amazing fact that I certainly didn\u2019t know before reading this book.<\/p>\n

Rachel Poliquin is good at making amazing facts about animals sound amazing. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re so interesting, and I have no doubt they\u2019ll have the same effect on kids.<\/p>\n

rachelpoliquin.com<\/a>
\nnicholasjohnfrith.com<\/a>
\nhmhco.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,33,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-science","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43747,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37568\/revisions\/43747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}