Cats: Nature and Nurture (Science Comics Series)

by Andy Hirsch

Overview

In Andy Hirsch's Science Comics: Cats, we meet feline friends from the tiniest kodkod to the biggest tiger, and find out what makes your neighborhood domestic cats so special. Equipped with teeth, claws, and camouflage to survive everywhere from deserts to mountaintops, how did these ferocious felines make the leap from predators to playmates... and are they even done leaping?

Every volume of Science Comics offers a complete introduction to a particular topic—dinosaurs, the solar system, robots, and more. Whether you're a fourth grader doing a natural science unit at school or a thirty year old with a secret passion for airplanes, these books are for you!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250143129
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Series:	Science Comics Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	42,657
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	GN750L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Andy Hirsch is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Dallas, Texas. He is the author and illustrator of Science Comics: Dogs, Science Comics: Trees, Science Comics: Cats, and Varmints (all from First Second), and contributor to too many others.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the Science Comics series:

"This series—written by a handful of authors—seems determined to offer a useful introduction to anything a curious grade-school student might wonder about. The insight behind these books is a powerful one. So much information about the world around us is actually better conveyed visually, through charts, illustrations, and sequential panels, than purely using words." —New York Times

"Like having a Time Life Science Library in comic books. Which is awesome!" —Popular Science

From the Publisher

07/26/2019

Gr 4–7-Must reading for ailurophiles and ailurophobes alike, this entry in the series explores the physical features that make cats large and small so perfectly adapted for hunting, and also delivers speculative but credible explanations (supported by a substantial list of published scientific studies) for how they develop individual character traits and dispositions, and why they are so popular as pets. All of this is wrapped in an autobiographical, celebrity-style "video" interview with Bean, a former stray who looks back on his life, from being left as a kitten outside an abandoned mall to joining a community of feral creatures to being adopted by "a large, upright, mostly bald mammal." With one eye on informational content and the other on what he dubs the "cute factor," Hirsch fills his neatly drawn cartoon panels with a great array of winsome cats wild and domestic—often shown gleefully pouncing on hapless mice, insects, or other prey but never visibly killing or chowing down. Prospective cat owners should look elsewhere for specific care advice, but along with the eye candy (and guidelines for creating a cat-friendly environment), Hirsch offers plenty of nourishing, chewy tidbits, from the observation that felines either purr or roar but not both to how "trap-neuter-release" programs may be "undomesticating" the stray cat gene pool. VERDICT This guide to understanding cats and cat behavior provides rare insights aplenty, both to middle grade readers with a specific pet in mind and to young naturalists with a general interest in animals wild, domestic, and (in this case) in between.-John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York

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