If You Take Away the Otter

 If You Take Away the Otter
by Susannah Buhrman-Deever; illus. by Matthew Trueman
32 pages; ages 5 - 8
Candlewick, 2020

theme: ocean, animals, ecology

On the Pacific coast of North America, where the ocean meets the shore, there are forests that have no trees.

They are forests of kelp and other seaweeds, providing a home to sea stars, octopuses, fish of all kinds and, trundling along the bottom, sea urchins. The king of these forests is the sea otter. The otters dive into the deep waters and fill up on fish, clams, crabs, and prickly sea urchins.

“There is just enough seaweed, enough seaweed eaters, and enough meat eaters to help the forests thrive,” writes Susannah Buhrman-Deever. But there was a time when people took the otters away.

With the otters gone, the sea urchin population grew. They ate the kelp forests. The ocean changed…

What I like about this book: I like how Susannah uses two levels of text to tell the story of what happens when one species (people) takes too much. I like Matthew Trueman’s luscious underwater scenes and the details of the ocean animals he paints. What I really like, though, is the sense of hope: that when we take care of our part of the planet, the animals and plants can come back into balance. Back matter includes more information about kelp forests and sea otters, as well as resources for curious naturalists to explore further.

Beyond the Books:

Learn more about sea otters, kelp, and sea urchins. This video shows how otters are ecosystem superheroes. This one takes you on an underwater adventure.

You can help save sea otters, even if you don’t live anywhere near an ocean. Check out these things you can do.

Visit an otter at a zoo or aquarium. River otters live near streams and rivers across North America. Some may live near you, so anything you do to help sea otters will help river otters, too. If you can’t get to a zoo, here’s a video of a river otter at the national zoo.

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. You can find out more about Susannah Buhrman-Deever at her website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ Teasels

 

Teasels are fun to watch. They bloom bit-by-bit, with flowers opening in a ring and then spreading up and down. There's always wildlife in and around the flowers - and in this case, between the flowers.

 Check out this time-lapse photography of teasel flowering (by Neil Bromhall)

Darwin's Rival: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Search for Evolution

When you think about the theory of evolution, chances are you think about Charles Darwin. He's the one who came up with the idea, right? The truth is a bit messier...

Darwin's Rival: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Search for Evolution
by Christiane Dorion; illustrated by Harry Tennant
64 pages; ages 10 - 14
Candlewick Studio, 2020

“In June 1858, the prominent scientist Charles Darwin received a letter from a young British explorer and naturalist… it proposed a new idea to explain how living things evolved over time.”

That young explorer’s name was Alfred Russel Wallace. Born at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in what is now Wales, he worked as a surveyor. As he tramped around the hills he developed a keen interest in nature and science – and began collecting beetles. At that time some naturalists were proposing a daring idea: that living things gradually change over time.

Wallace wanted to learn more, so in 1848 he boarded a cargo ship bound for Brazil and spent the next four years exploring and mapping a river, collecting fish and birds and insects.

This is the tale of exploration, field research, shipwrecks, and a friendship between two naturalists that evolved over time. Both Wallace and Darwin wrote about natural selection and the evolution of new species. It was Wallace’s letter that prompted Darwin to write his book, On the Origin of Species. Rather than competing against each other for credit, both tried hard to treat each other fairly – to the benefit of all.

What I like about this book: At its heart, it’s an adventure story. There are maps showing Wallace’s routes, spreads showing diversity of beetles and butterflies and birds, and some great historical perspectives.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.