Queens of the Jungle

March 15, 2024
A biologist presents a gallery of her favorite females, "the wonder women of the animal kingdom." "It's all about girl power," York writes--referring to elephant families, but really applying the notion to dozens of animals as she highlights a wide array of female-led group dynamics, reproductive practices, and parental behaviors. For many creatures that hang out in family or social groups, from wild horses, ring-tailed lemurs, and spotted hyenas to orcas, bonobos, and honeybees, females are in charge. Also, for the much tinier male orchid mantis and black widow spider, there's often "no second date," as the author puts it. She ventures into more intriguing territory by introducing multiple species that change genders as they go. She also describes female Amazon mollies and mole salamanders (which clone themselves, but only in the presence of sperm they don't actually use) as well as water fleas, marbled crayfish, and New Mexico whiptail lizards, which produce offspring without having to bother with males at all. If that's not enough to leave readers agog, she offers several examples of extreme maternal sacrifice such as that of the desert spider, which liquifies her own insides to feed her young. Humans don't make the cut, but Clinthorne-Wong slips occasional mildly anthropomorphic expressions or nurturing postures into her vibrantly hued close-up portraits of wild mothers and children. Revelatory reading for audiences of every gender. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

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August 16, 2024

Gr 2-5-A fun, colorful, nonfiction book about female members of the animal kingdom. In the introduction, York shares her reasons for creating the book: "male animals have historically received more attention than females. One major reason for this was that until relatively recently, the male scientists of our species were the ones getting the most attention. Now that women scientists are starting to get the recognition they deserve, we are finding out more about female animals than ever before." Each spread features either an animal or a general topic as it relates to the females of various species (e.g., live birth, parthenogenesis, and migration). The text is stimulating and written at a developmentally appropriate level for elementary grades. The book is vibrantly and effectively illustrated in full color, and bookended by a table of contents, glossary, and index (unfortunately, no bibliography). The book's theme begs the question of whether it is further reifying human binary gender norms by applying them to animal species, but simply with a different lens than the male-dominated scientific paradigm of the past. This conceptual tension is somewhat evident for example on page 71 about clownfish, when the author writes, "whether an animal is male or female is not always a simple question." However, an accessible and interesting text about overlooked female animals is certainly still a welcome intervention to the nonfiction catalogue. VERDICT An engaging, accessible, and highly recommended purchase for libraries.-Mallory Weber

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