Rosemary Mosco

A kid with glasses and a bucket hat declares they've found the perfect place for a picnic: "See, there are no ants in this book. It says so on the cover! Ants love to eat picnic food, and I do not want to share." Of course, there ARE ants - all kinds! They introduce themselves one at a time, up to ten, with what kind of ant they are, and while the kid is dismayed at first, they decide it's actually pretty cool ("I think I like ants"), even hiding them under their hat when an anteater comes show more around. Back matter includes "about the ants in this book" (acorn ant, dinosaur ant, pharaoh ant, winnow ant, etc.), with an illustration, scientific name, description, and location. Playfully fourth-wall-breaking and informative. show less

This is a really fun way to learn about pigeons! Mosco's sense of humor and illustrations keep it from being a dry field guide, and the sciencey concepts are explained clearly enough I wouldn't hesitate to hand the book to an interested 12-year-old.

It opens with an overview of the Columba family and what is a pigeon - the extinct dodo bird was one! - but for the most part, it's about the humble city pigeon, almost entirely feral descendents of the tame pigeons of yore.

Mosco explains their show more appearance and common coloring, so you can learn to tell them apart when they're stalking the hot dog stand on the corner. She also describes their anatomy and common behaviors, and things that make pigeons special. They feed their chicks milk, amazing.

I wish I could take this book back to when i worked in a downtown area with pigeons, so i might have appreciated them better. show less

This is a graphic novel. The premise is that one kid is home sick and bored. Her friend comes by with a book about the solar system, so they invent a spaceship (with their pets as the fictional crew) to travel throughout the solar system – to the sun, then to all the planets and “belts” in between them and slightly beyond, where they learn about where they are visiting.

This is aimed toward kids, but I learned some stuff about the solar system, as well. I really enjoyed this. The pets show more as crew was kind of silly, but likely appealing to kids. I liked that there was a summary at the end of each planetary visit to explain some of the things learned. I also liked that they stopped at Pluto, even though it is no longer considered a planet. And I also enjoyed learning about a few of the planets’ moons. It was unfortunate temperatures were only in Fahrenheit, however. The illustrator did a really nice job, as well; the illustrations are all in colour. show less

This might be the strangest thing I've ever felt cocky about, because I came into this book thinking I already know so much about pigeons I'm not sure that this book is going to really teach me anything but I bet it'll be cute if nothing else.

Shockingly I was actually not that far off! To be clear, I did learn a ton and it absolutely was as cute as I thought it would be. I'm familiar with the history of pigeons and their general anatomy so a cloaca was not a revolution to me. However there show more was still a lot that I didn't know, like about the way the different breeds and traits are mingled, and the horrifying state of their nests. So in all, this is probably a good read for a beginner or intermediate pigeon person. For an expert, you'd probably be more in the camp of "I know all these things but it sure is cute anyway. "

And of course, the humor was a delight! I follow Rosemary Mosco on Instagram and have for a while, so I'm not sure how I missed the fact that she had a book out until another blogger friend posted about it and I went wow that's right up my alley! So I was familiar with her art and enjoyed seeing it pop up throughout the book, especially with her cheeky silliness included. And even when I might have known some of the information presented, the tone and anecdotes that she provided kept them from feeling repetitive to me or anything like that. It was so silly and fun. 😊 show less