emdoux's review
4.0
Inspired by a personal encounter with a whale, journalist Charles Siebert set off to “share the sense of wonder and awe I felt as I stared into the eye of [the] whale,” and in this goal, he succeeds. This well-organized and accessible book relates the usual anatomical and behavioral facts expected in animal nonfiction, blending this basic information with a smooth narrative style and additional unexpected details about whale legends, 'culture', abilities, and human encounters with the species. With a clever mix of cartoon drawings (a particularly amusing Three Tenors spoof appears on page 55 during a section on humpback songs) and beautiful photographs, Baker's light illustrations complement the conversational tone of the text. A completely fascinating read, yet sorely missing from this fascinating account of cetaceans is any hint of reference, citation, bibliography, indication of researched fact, or even index! One might expect more from a collaborative project between journalist and the National Resources Defense Council.
Cool facts I learned:
- a beached blue whale in 1865 Sweden was preserved & transformed into a cafe. People would drink tea in its belly.
- Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 carried digital recording of humpback whale sounds to help portray life/culture on Earth in case of aliens.
- dolphins, elephants, and chimpanzees are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror.
- whales off the coast of baja will pick up fishing boats & put them back down
- a humpback whale was caught in some crab traps & divers had to manually free her - she held still the whole time as they cut the traps away from her body, then swam up to each of them individually & bumped them with her head after she was free, as if to thank them.
This book had some absolutely incredible facts -- I kept stopping to read aloud some incredible piece of information to my coworker. Because of this, I find it incredibly lamentable that the book includes no references, citations, or bibliographic information of any kind - I now wonder whether some of the incredible, unbelievable accounts told in this book are, in fact, true! When I read a nonfiction book like this, that has so many wonderful bits of information, I often pore over the references, looking for another source of information on the same topic to glean more fascinating tidbits - but with this book, I cannot do that.
Another issue I had with this book was the title -- The Secret World of Whales implies to me that the book will be about underwater life -- the world of whales being their environment - the ocean. However, this book more discusses the secret history of whales, and that the title should reflect this.
That said, fascinating.
Cool facts I learned:
- a beached blue whale in 1865 Sweden was preserved & transformed into a cafe. People would drink tea in its belly.
- Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 carried digital recording of humpback whale sounds to help portray life/culture on Earth in case of aliens.
- dolphins, elephants, and chimpanzees are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror.
- whales off the coast of baja will pick up fishing boats & put them back down
- a humpback whale was caught in some crab traps & divers had to manually free her - she held still the whole time as they cut the traps away from her body, then swam up to each of them individually & bumped them with her head after she was free, as if to thank them.
This book had some absolutely incredible facts -- I kept stopping to read aloud some incredible piece of information to my coworker. Because of this, I find it incredibly lamentable that the book includes no references, citations, or bibliographic information of any kind - I now wonder whether some of the incredible, unbelievable accounts told in this book are, in fact, true! When I read a nonfiction book like this, that has so many wonderful bits of information, I often pore over the references, looking for another source of information on the same topic to glean more fascinating tidbits - but with this book, I cannot do that.
Another issue I had with this book was the title -- The Secret World of Whales implies to me that the book will be about underwater life -- the world of whales being their environment - the ocean. However, this book more discusses the secret history of whales, and that the title should reflect this.
That said, fascinating.
michelle_neuwirth_gray9311's review
4.0
A really interesting look at not only whale relationships with humans but among other whales as well.
erine's review
4.0
A very interesting look at the human-whale relationship, including ways we have hunted and studied these awesome beings.
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