Tag Wide Eyed

Fish Are Friends

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Fish Are Friends
Jules Howard and Gosia Herba
Wide Eyed

Ready to take the plunge? It will be well worth it as you’ll meet all manner of underwater creatures including the ‘really smart’ fish that got together to write and narrate this book. Chief among the latter is a White-Spotted Pufferfish. Between them they will provide a wealth of information that is divided into an introduction, an explanation about what fish are – did you know they have been around for 500 millions years? – followed by five main chapters, the first of which is called Big-Brained Buddies wherein four fish including that Pufferfish describe the various ways in which they are clever creatures.

That Pufferfish then has a spread where it shows some of the beautiful patterns he and fellow puffers create in the sand – ‘works of art’ so some scientists call these designs on the sea floor.
I love the alliterative titles of some of the spreads, one such is ‘Nifty Navigators’ where we learn how sharks find their way using Earth’s magnetic field. Clever stuff, particularly the journey made by a whale shark named Anne that scientists tagged and found she swam 19,300 kilometres. Wow!

Chapter 2 explains why Pufferfish and others call themselves Loving and Loyal and looks at parenting and friendship by fish. Clownfish exhibit something called ‘sequential hermaphroditism’ (youngsters can impress their own friends by using that term) where the babies all start life as male but later in life change and begin to produce eggs instead, sometimes thousands. Female Humpback Anglerfish are also prolific egg producers and may fill their large bodies with around 1,000,000 tiny eggs before releasing them.

The third chapter, We’ve Got You Covered, introduces and explores the fact that fish perform all kinds of jobs that help ecosystems thrive and is full of hopeful medical possibilities that fish chemicals offer.

The two final chapters are Join The Party about fish social habits and Friends Through Time! The latter explores the evolutionary journey fish have been on over millions of years, even preceding dinosaurs.

A vital spread at the end presents how human readers could ‘Become A Friend To Fish’ and as you’d expect plastic pollution and overfishing are key problems for our fishy friends.

Zoologist, Jules Howard’s writing style is gently humorous as are Gosia Herba’s illustrations making the book very approachable for young readers to absorb a wealth of fascinating information almost without noticing.

Thoroughly recommended for primary class collections, secondary school libraries and home bookshelves.

Up Close and Incredible: Dinosaurs

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Up Close and Incredible: Dinosaurs
Eric Huang, illustrated by Facundo Aguirre
Wide Eyed

Dinosaur fans will delight in joining a team of tiny, diverse palaeontologists in this interactive investigation. First though you’ll need to release the 3x magnifying glass from the cover and grab whatever tools you think necessary – dental probes and rock hammers for instance – and you’re ready to explore an array of dinosaurs both living and fossilised. You’ll look inside and out: Huang lists the details of ten significant anatomical features to spot on each spread starting with a T.Rex’s head and jawbone. Therein you’ll find what the author calls the ‘lethal bananas’ (very long side teeth) in its mouth; just right to slice through the tough skin of its prey.

If feet are more your interest then head to the spreads with claws in the title. Thereon you’ll encounter both the claw bones – unguals to be more scientific – of Therizinosaurus; these were the longest of any animal ever. Then there are the ‘killer claws’ of Velociraptors (the second toe on each foot and they’re curved like a sickle). Look out for the other kinds of toes a velociraptor had too.

Well known dinos are of course featured, as is Archaeopteryx with its bird-like features, but unless you’re an expert you may well come across a new name. I’d never heard of Parasaurolophus, (one of the duck-billed dinosaurs) before reading this book

A scientific search-and-find adventure bursting with facts and visual jokes, gently humorous but also included are timelines, a size comparison spread and a glossary.

Aguirre’s zany illustrations are full of hilarious details that readers will want to return to over and over again

A World of Dogs / Illuminoceans

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A World of Dogs
Carlie Sorosiak and Luis Uribe
Nosy Crow

Since being attacked by an Alsatian as a five year old in the park, I have suffered from cynophobia and so I thought it best to ask a relation, ten year old Leo, who is a dog lover and owner, to read this book, which is packed with fascinating facts, historical information and real-life stories, and tell me what he thought. He absolutely loved it and has read it several times.


“My favourite parts of the book are the section about different breeds of dogs – I never knew there were so many” … “and I really enjoyed the pages telling of dogs in the war. I especially liked finding out that they could win medals for military service.”

Beautifully presented and illustrated, this is an excellent book to include in a school topic on pets, as well as a great book to give to a dog lover.

Illuminoceans
Carnovsky and Barbara Taylor
Wide Eyed

Using art from the same design duo as previous titles such as Illuminature, author Barbara Taylor takes readers deep into the world’s oceans. In order, we visit the Arctic Ocean – the smallest, shallowest and coldest, followed by the Pacific Ocean with its Great Barrier Reef. The saltiest ocean, the Atlantic, the home to the largest number of different fish species, is the next stop, after which comes the Mediterranean Sea with its blue sparkling waters but large amount of pollution.

The Indian Ocean is the third largest and warmest ocean. Sadly its increasing warmth and low oxygen content mean that the growth of plankton – the beginning of most ocean food chains – is limited and of course this has a negative affect on the variety of other species that can thrive in its waters. Nevertheless it’s home to a wealth of rare species and humpback whales use the western part as a breeding area. (All this information is given on each ocean’s first spread via an introductory paragraph and a box containing statistics.) The Southern Ocean, surrounding Antarctica, the youngest and second smallest ocean, is the final ocean we visit.
The concluding sections explore the ocean depths, the shallow seas and takes a look at oceans in prehistoric times.

The other clever feature of the book is the way colour is used together with a three colour lens (found inside the from cover). Using the red lens, on the next (wordless) spread you see fishes native to the ocean, the green lens highlights the habitat, and the blue shows other ocean creatures. Following this, using only black and white, is a double spread for each ocean giving information about the fishes on the verso and on the recto, information about the other ocean creatures.

On the final page is a QR code, which when scanned, allows the reader to use a smart phone as a three-colour lens.
Engagingly written and cleverly crafted, this is yet another immersive look at the natural world,

The Big Book of Football

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The Big Book of Football
Mundial and Damien Weighill
Wide Eyed

I have several young relations who are ardent fans of the game and have taught countless soccer-mad children but  I have to own up to knowing very little about football and never watch it either live or on TV. However I know that this large format book will excite, entertain and perhaps educate a huge number of readers, be they football mad or merely somewhat interested in ‘the beautiful game’.

In over 100 pages, international soccer magazine Mundial has put fascinating facts to ponder and everything you need to know to talk about or play a good game of footie.

Divided into ten sections the book kicks off with two spreads dealing with the basics and the lingo, including illustrated definitions of such skills as nutmeg, cross and dribble, an explanation of the offside rule, red and yellow cards and such strange expressions as park the bus and Fergie time.

The History of Football includes a timeline and traces the origins of the game through to the 2019 Women’s World Cup, which was watched by an estimated 1 billion people; there’s also a look at the evolution of boots

and the all-important ball.

Next comes Mundial’s pick of a ‘superteam’ of legendary players from history, both men and women with a short, illustrated biography of each player.

Of particular interest to aspiring players will be the masterclass How to … section giving instructions on iconic moves such as How to take the perfect shot like Ji So-Yun, How to take the perfect set piece like David Beckham and How to do nutmeg like Luis Suárez

Weird and Wonderful the final section surely is with its look at some strange haircuts, celebratory gestures, and other bits and pieces of soccer stuff that make it SO much more than a mere game. All are illustrated with Damien Weighill’s bright graphics making for an informative and entertaining resource book to dip in and out of at home or in school.