Dolphins

by Josh Gregory

With exciting full-color photos, Nature's Children brings you face-to-face with some of the world's most intriguing animals-from chimpanzees to pandas to tarantulas. Each title reveals how these creatures survive in the wild, how they raise their young, what's being done to protect them, and more wild facts.

Genres: Childrens, Nonfiction, Animals

48 pages, Library Binding

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fact File page provides the classification of dolphins at the front of the book. Dolphins are some of the most intelligent and playful mammals on the Earth. Their habitats include both oceans and rivers. There are 37 species of dolphin. These include orcas and bottlenose dolphin. "Most dolphins are less than 10 feet long. Bottlenose dolphins grow as large as 12 feet long and can weigh 1,100 pounds." Dolphins are carnivorous. They eat mainly fish, but their diet can also include "shrimp, lobsters, crabs, and small squid." Larger dolphins such as orcas eat larger prey -- "sharks, seals, polar bears, and other whales." Dolphins live in pods consisting of two to dozens of dolphins, except for the river dolphins which lives alone. Dolphins use echolocation to discover what is ahead. "A dolphin sends out high-pitched clicking sounds that bounce off objects and return to the dolphin." A dolphin baby is called a calf, it is born not hatched, and it can swim as soon as it is born. "They start learning to hunt after a few months, but they continue drinking milk until they are a year and a half old." Dolphins communicate using "more than 2,000 different sounds, including whistles, clicks, and barks. Some scientists believe that these sounds form a language like the ones humans use." Dolphins are threatened by pollution and fishers. Some fishers hunt dolphins for food, others get dolphins caught in their fishing nets; even the vibrations from the motors can disrupt a dolphin's echolocation. "In 1972, the United States government passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This law makes it illegal for people to touch, feed, or bother any dolphins or other whales living in the wild." Conservation organizations work to help dolphins by resarch and study. At the end of the book is a glossary, habitat map, Find Out More page listing additional books and websites, an index and an About the Author section. This book is part of the Nature's Children series by Scholastic.

[Kasey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is all about dolphins. It talks about the different types, how they live in the sea, and even about their unique personalities! I really enjoyed the beautiful pictures throughout the book and how interesting the facts were. They talked about the similarities that dolphins have to humans. Did you know that some dolphins have hair on their bodies like humans do? It was a very interesting book.
I pair this book with the fiction book "Dolphins as Daybreak" by Mary Pope Osborne. This book is about two kids who get whisked away into the ocean and find themselves in trouble but the dolphins come in to save the day. I thought a student would enjoy reading this book after reading the nonfiction pairing because they would have a better visual and understanding of dolphins as they read about how they save the day.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new here. Straightforward information about dolphins. One page of text combined with a full-page photograph. Crisp and appealing (except when the noses in at least six instances are trapped in the book's "gutter," thereby truncating the animals' heads or destroying the smooth line of the animals' figures).

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro primer to the ins and outs of dolphins. Partnered with great pictures.