Many kids (and adults) understandably love aquatic mammals. Delaunay presents them from the inside out, in well-organized chapters with short paragraphs covering sleep habits, habitats and migration, reproduction, and diet. Several sections are devoted to these creatures\u2019 social structures and communication, both complex enough that scientists believe cetaceans have their own group cultures. A chapter on the dangers whales face is optimistic, though Delaunay acknowledges that they still face plenty of threats. Indeed, descriptions of collaborative hunting strategies provide concrete evidence of cetacean smarts and social bonds. Though the focus is on facts, Delaunay also briefly summarizes the Inuit story of the Sedna, goddess of the oceans, and quickly lists several other \u201cwhale tales.\u201d The writing is a model of clarity and concision. The great variations among cetaceans is evident from both text and art. Large engravings make the most of the subjects, with deep blues, white highlights, and occasional bits of color; point of view and compositional shifts are used to dramatic effect. The book\u2019s up-to-date information, oversize illustrations, and broad scope make it ideal for casual browsing as well as in-depth study, though no backmatter is included.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many kids (and adults) understandably love aquatic mammals. Delaunay presents them from the inside out, in well-organized chapters with short paragraphs covering sleep habits, habitats and migration, reproduction, and diet. Several sections are devoted to these creatures\u2019 social structures and communication, both complex enough that scientists believe cetaceans have their own group cultures. A chapter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}