Official Review: The Animal Connection by Heather Brooks

[CataclysmicKnight]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Animal Connection" by Heather Brooks.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Animals are magnificent. Well okay, most animals are magnificent, some are only okay when they keep to themselves like skunks, snakes, and spiders. But hey, there are still loads of remarkable animals, and you can find several of them in The Animal Connection: Share Their True Adventures by Heather Brooks.

The Animal Connection: Share Their True Adventures is a short little book (around 60 pages long) with 8 stories that highlight interesting stories and facts about various types of animals. These stories are incredibly varied: the first, for example, is about an alligator that escaped after being raised illegally. It was free for nearly two years before it was captured once again, becoming a local hero and garnering worldwide fame in the process. Then there's a story about how dolphins are trained by the Navy, an albatross that traveled across the world by (accidentally?) hitchhiking, a pair of wolves, a bit of information about Project Wildlife, and even a story about the Nano Hummingbird - a remote-controlled surveillance aircraft created by DARPA - and the animal that inspired them.

Each story is 2-3 pages long followed by a separate, shorter section that gives some additional information. a bibliography, and some photographs that relate to the story. I really appreciated the depth of the individual bibliographies, they made it very easy to look into more information and even credited the photos she used. These short stories and bits of added info are short enough that they can be read any time, and since everything is stand-alone. there's no problem coming back days or even weeks later to continue reading it. That really isn't likely to be a problem, though, as the book is so short.

In fact, the length of the book is one of my biggest issues with The Animal Connection: Share Their True Adventures. I reviewed a physical version of the book, which has a regular price of $14.95, and it felt far too short for that price. That's not to say that it's not a good book by any means, and people who love animals will definitely enjoy it. I've watched plenty of shows and movies about animals and read my fair share of news articles and Wikipedia pages, but every bit of information on these pages was new to me. Granted I really couldn't have cared less about how Grunions breed (that was kinda gross...), but as a whole the book was great.

Aside from the length, I managed to find six grammatical errors. None of these were major - "aero dynamics" instead of "aerodynamics", for example, and "three-hundred--foot" had an extra dash in it - and the book was very easy to read. Heather didn't shy away from technical terms when they were applicable, but almost all of them were explained well. There was one word I didn't know, but a quick search on Bing told me everything I needed to know. This means that, overall, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with a single-digit age unless a parent is around to help. Other issues included some blurry images (likely resized too big to retain full clarity) and one questionable fact. Following the story about the dolphins is an image with a caption that reads "Armed dolphin trained by US Navy to kill terrorists." I looked online for more information and found a Wikipedia page for this exact topic that even used the same image. However, the page said nothing about dolphins killing terrorists (or anyone for that matter), and I couldn't find any information anywhere that would confirm this information. With that said, I didn't have access to the books she drew her information from, so I can't guarantee that it doesn't have a proper source. And everything else I looked into was easy to verify, including the rest of the dolphin information.

I really liked the time I spent with The Animal Connection: Share Their True Adventures. A lot of the writing almost felt like the written narration of a nature documentary - it was entertaining but also incredibly informative. I particularly liked learning about just how much the dwindling number of wolves has changed the balance of nature, and the training that the US Navy has done with dolphins is remarkable. Looking further into the Nano Hummingbird was equally scary and amazing, and learning more about Project Wildlife made me very interested in learning more about it as well. It was a little weird how little the stories had in common - some are about an individual animal while others are about the species as a whole, and the last two are even more unrelated - but almost all of them shared the theme of conservation. If I could say only one thing about the book, it would be that I feel much more interested in animals and their preservation than before. My rating of the book is 3 out of 4 stars, and it's an easy recommendation for anyone who's interested in animals.

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The Animal Connection
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[Stephanie Elizabeth]

This sounds quite interesting, especially for those that want to learn more about animals. The story about the alligator pulled me in! Thanks for the engaging review!

[Bhaskins]

Would this be appropriate for a 5 year old? We read to him a lot and he Ioves animals. I know you mentioned a few technical terms, but would you consider the stories appropriate?

[Erin Painter Baker]

This sounds like a great book for parents to read to kids who love animals. Fun, true stories that are short enough for bedtime are a rare find.

[Nym182]

This book sound super interesting to me! I like that it sounds like it's not just a fact based book but has stories as well! I definitely want to read this book!