Juvenile Nonfiction: Chasing Cheetahs, Sy Montgomery & Nic Bishop

Another of the Scientists in the Field series.

Chasing Cheetahs; the race to save Africa's fastest cats
Sy Montgomery, photography by Nic Bishop
ISBN: 9780547815497
Excellent photography and clear text explain the work done by cheetah conservationists.

I am really digging these field-science books.  If I had science information like this available when I was coming through school, I think I might have been motivated enough to suffer through the math necessary to follow up my desire to be a scientist.  These publishers are just killing it with these quality nonfiction titles.

On to the specifics.  We are introduced via words and photos to a conservation park in Namibia, where scientists work with locals to educate people about cheetahs, and to rehabilitate injured or orphaned cheetahs to return to the wild, or to be tamed enough to become ambassadors visiting schools and being shown off, or to remain semi-wild members of the preserve to help socialize new generations of orphans or the injured.

There is a lot going on, and the book is densely packed with information about how the cheetahs are tracked, fed, kept, and worked with, in addition to the work done with the locals to help position them on the side of the cheetahs.  (that last part involves a whole specialized dog-breeding program!)

Beautiful work, excellent information, and just another amazing nonfiction book that I'm proud to have in the collection to inspire a new generation of scientists and nature-lovers.

New Arrivals: Juv Nonfiction: The Next Wave, Elizabeth Rusch

The Next Wave: The Quest to Harness the Power of the Oceans
Elizabeth Rusch, photo credits various.
ISBN: 9780544099999
Part of the Scientists in the Field series by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt


These new science nonfictions that are coming out are really quality books.  This one reminded me a lot of the dolphin study book that came in last year, but in this case, we're investigating the state of wave-generated-electricity systems.  

The book focuses on two main groups of scientists: a duo (then trio) of Mikes who have an ocean-floor-based device that uses variations in water pressure to generate electricity, and professor and inventor Annette von Jouanne who not only invented one of the first functional wave-energy buoys, but spends her career working with agencies to create and develop testing locations and policies to help others refine and improve their own devices.

These two groups aren't the only ones discussed - there are breakout panels from sidebars to full spreads that detail other groups and their successes or failures (one especially poignant and frustrating story to read about was the sinking in 2007 of the prototype device "AquaBuOY" which performed beautifully for months, but then sank into 115-foot ocean waters due to a failure in its ballast tanks.  A salvage operation was required by the testing contract, and bankrupted the company, and the sinking made the news where the successful months-long operation did not.  That failure set the entire industry back by years, as investors pulled their funding from anything that seemed similar.  How frustrating that must be for the scientists - I was upset just reading about it!

I love that the book is careful to explain everything, but doesn't go out of the way to simplify or minimize the complexity of the science involved.  Everything necessary to understand the concept is explained and defined in simple terms, but the complicated approaches to generating electricity in various different ways from wave movement are not simplified or elided.  I find that it is really encouraging and motivational for readers to not be talked down to, so I'm all about this approach.

Excellent book, excellent topic.  I can't wait to see the next one in the series!