Blog Tour and Giveaway: How to Speak Animal by Dr. Gabby Wild and Aubre Andrus

Welcome to the How to Speak Animal Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of National Geographic Kids' How to Speak Animal on August 16th and World Animal Day on October 4th, this week blogs across the web will feature special excerpts from the book, sharing fascinating insight into the secret language of animals of all shapes and sizes. If you’ve ever wondered why ants touch antennae when they meet, what it means when a cichlid fish pees, or why turkeys gobble, this is the blog tour (and book!) for you!

How to Speak... BAT

When a male bat wants to impress a female, he will spread his wings, sing, and the long hairs on the top of his head stand up. The singing noise that bats make is like that of a songbird’s, with trills and up and down notes. Each male sings a unique tune. This noise is often too high for humans to hear. Bats also use singing to identify each other, scare off predators, and teach their offspring. Scientists believe bats may use vocalizations because sound can travel far. By vocalizing, a bat can stay in one place and send a message across a distance instead of using its energy to fly there. 

After studying 22 Egyptian fruit bats for 75 days, scientists discovered that the bats weren’t just squeaking— they were arguing. They were fighting about food and sleeping space. And sometimes the squeak meant “Get away!” These squeaks were directed toward a specific bat, which means the bats were having one-on-one conversations. 

Bats use chemical communication, too. With scent glands on their neck and chin, bats can mark their territory by rubbing their chin against a surface near their home. This helps bats define their status and claim a prime location at the top of a tree or cave instead of one of the lower edges. It’s their way of saying, "This is MY spot."

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DR. WILD'S WORDS
After humans, bats are the most vocal mammals. That’s because they “see” by “talking.” This is called echolocation. Bats’ high-pitched noises bounce off objects around them and return as an echo. Bats can tell the difference between the echo from a tree, a human, a mosquito, or another bat. Because they rely on echolocation, bats become temporarily “blind” while they eat. They can’t make a noise with a mouth full of food.

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DID YOU KNOW?
The world's smallest mammal is a bumblee bat.  It weighs less than a penny. 

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Buy | Goodreads

Learn about the secret language of wild animals in this exciting and informative guide from the experts who brought you How to Speak Cat and How to Speak Dog.

We know animals can’t speak and express themselves in the same way as humans … but even the smallest and quietest animals have incredible ways of communicating with each other. With wildlife veterinarian expert Dr. Gabby Wild as a guide, How to Speak Animal helps kids understand how animals communicate through sound, body language, and behavior. It’s full of expert insights and real-life stories of humans exploring ways to “talk” to animals, from teaching great apes sign language to speaking “dolphin.” Packed with super-engaging animal photography that helps illustrate key concepts, this fascinating bookprofiles more than 60 different creatures―from birds to mammals to reptiles and more―and their amazing ways of communicating with each other.

If you’ve ever wondered why gorillas beat their chests and make hooting noises, what it means when chameleons change color, or why some elephants twist their trunks together, this is the book for you!

 

About the Authors

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DR. GABBY WILD earned her bachelor of science and doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) degrees at Cornell University. She completed her veterinary internship training at Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital in Akron, Ohio, and received her master’s of public health (MPH) from the University of Minnesota. She is a published genetics researcher and uses her research background to screen zoonotic disease transmission among wildlife, domestic animals, and people. To help maintain a healthy planet, she monitors herd and individual health for rising epidemics. Dr. Wild balances her Western medicine practices with traditional Chinese medicine in an effort to blend both methodologies. Acclaimed for her role as “the veterinarian” on Animal Jam, the world’s largest online “playground,” with 54 million players, she creates educational videos and teaches children internationally about wildlife conservation and medicine. When not in the wild, Gabby works as a Wildlife Health Program veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo and is a training veterinary surgeon at the Veterinary Medical Center of Long Island. She lives in New York City.

Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

AUBRE ANDRUS is an award-winning children's book author with dozens of books published by National Geographic, Lonely Planet, American Girl, Disney, Scholastic, and more. She has also ghostwritten books for young YouTube stars. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her family. 

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GIVEAWAY

• Five (5) winners will receive a copy of How to Speak Animal
• US/Canada only
• Ends 10/2 at 11:59pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Blog Tour Schedule:

September 19th — Susie's Reviews and Giveaways
September 20th — Pragmatic Mom
September 21st — Mom Read It
September 22nd — Randomly Reading
September 23rd — YA Book Nerd

Sequoyah and His Talking Leaves: a Play about the Cherokee Syllabary by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin, illustrated by Siri Weber Feeney

Part picture book, part historical play, Sequoyah and His Talking Leaves tells about how one man devoted his life to developing a system of writing for the otherwise only spoken Cherokee language.   Sequoyah realized quickly how valuable a written language could be for the Cherokee people.  Based on the repetition of sounds, Sequoyah invented a written language based on syllables and called a syllabury.

The play is narrated by two historians and is set in the southern United States sometime between 1809 and 1820.  In the opening scene, Sequoyah, an illiterate metal smith, notices some of his friends looking at an newspaper, which he refers to as a talking leaf because of the writing on it, which his friends refer to as marks and believe were given to the white man by the Great Spirit.

There are two historians who introduce things or provide the reader with some important background information and just generally move the action along.   We don't know a lot a actual facts about what it was like for Sequoya while he worked on his written Cherokee language, but the historians also differentiate fact from inference.

Not all Cherokees thought the invention of a written language was a good idea.  Sequoyah meets with resistance from some Cherokee Conjurers who think he has been possessed by a demon, or shed-leh.  Enemies burned down the hut he worked in, along with all he has accomplished up until then.  Sequoyah, his wife Sally and daughter Ayoka set about trying to reconstruct what they could of his syllabury and eventually had a total of 86 sounds that represented the Cherokee language.  It was long before literacy spread among the Cherokee people, thanks to Sequoyah and his syllabury.

In the end, the historians tells us that Sequoyah wrote a book, took it with him on a trip to Mexico where he died of old age.  They think that perhaps the book was buried with him.  Just imagine what this very intelligent, clever man might have written about his life and his invented written language.

Sequoyah and his Talking Leaves is a play with14 characters and perfect for kids in a grades 3 and 4.  The writing is easy to understand, fact and inference are clearly defined and the back matter has a list of words to know, as well as books, websites for further investigation into the life of Sequoyah in particular and the Cherokee Nation in general.  But keep in mind that this is a short play intended to introduce young readers to Sequoyah and his achievement, and encourage a more in-depth exploration and appreciation of his life and of the Cherokee Nation.  In fact, you might want to read Sequoyah's biography on the website of the Cherokee Nation

I wasn't 100% positive that Sequoyah and his Talking Leaves was a true nonfiction book, but according to the NYPL, it is listed in their catalogue that way.  This play is also part of a series called Setting the Stage for Fluency, designed around Core Learning Standards to help students engage more with the text, both written and illustrated.

This play is recommended for readers age 8+
This play is an EARC received from NetGalley

This is book 2 of my 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy