Lily Murray got the memo. That’s the memo that states that the best way to get reluctant readers is to ask a question. How Old Is A Whale? Animal Life Spans From the Mayfly to the Immortal Jellyfish starts with a question that kids might never have asked, but asks it anyway. It’s the same Pavlovian instinct that kicks in when someone gently tosses a ball at you. You don’t actively want to catch or throw something, but you’ll catch the ball. How Old Is A Whale? I don’t know. I don’t care, I’ve never thought about it, but now that the book has asked me, I’m curious. A whale must have an interesting age scale because the book has thrown the question my way, so let’s see.
Then, as those third through seventh-graders open the book to the table of contents, they’ll be greeted with a slew of Monarch Butterflies wafting on the outskirts of the two pages. There are roughly two dozen insects, mammals, reptiles, fish and sponges listed, some will be known to them, but most of them will be new creatures. The Greenland Shark and Kakapo stand out as two animals that most people won’t know anything about.
The mayfly has the unfortunate distinction of gathering above water in large masses. This is prime pickings for predators who can eat them off as they fly through the air or jump out of the water. It’s this fact that adds to their very short 24-hour lifespan. They’ve been around for 300 million years, so they certainly make the most out of their curtailed life, but their family tree would take decades to trace.
The trapdoor spider’s life is a bit more complicated. The females of this species will live up to 40 years, but the males will only live up to seven years. There’s a great Twitter account called Why Women Live Longer, or something along those lines, and the journey of the trapdoor spider somewhat parallels those lessons. For reasons unknown, shortly after mating, the male trapdoor spider will die. Whereas the female spider; has previously spent years in or near her burrow laying pheromones around it to attract the males, will retreat back home. There’s a great Twitter account about women with cats, and women that like Taylor Swift that parallel those lessons.
How Old Is A Whale? Is loaded with two-page overviews of animals, their basic characteristics, reproduction habits (which certainly affects their life span) and contributing factors that impact how long they’re alive. Yeah, it’s a smart illustrated book, but don’t let that fact intimidate you. If you approach the book two pages at a time it’ll be on-point for those younger elementary school readers. In those cases it’ll be handled like a very short bedtime story that consists of a four-paragraph story. The lush illustrations will help fill the voice for those ages and could be just the short STEM that’ll bait their information hook.
Older readers, those who are in fourth grade through middle school will soak in the age knowledge of just how old some critters can get. That will help build some essays, but will more likely help them appreciate their lives and how fragile things around them really are. That tree is not going to live forever. The bug on their bush that they see on the way to the bus stop will have an even shorter life. With a little luck and clever thinking those tender ages will take that newfound appreciation of life and go on to make their brains as big as they possibly could become. They’ll live together in harmony, make peace with the aliens who are far more advanced than us, solve diseases that have eluded us and figure out a way to stop telemarketers from ringing my cell phone.
How Old Is A Whale? Animal Life Spans From the Mayfly to the Immortal Jellyfish is by Lily Murray with illustrations by Jesse Hodgson and is available on Big Picture Press, an imprint of Candlewick Press.
There are affiliate links in this post.
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
GooglePlus
Youtube