Moonlight Crab Count

Helping Animals & Changing Habitats

by Neeti Bathala, Jennifer Keats Curtis (Contributor), Veronica V. Jones (Contributor)

Outstanding Science Trade Book
ILA Children's Choices Reading List
Even kids can get involved in science! Ecologist Dr. Neeti Bathala and Jennifer Keats Curtis collaborate to bring us the story of these adventurous citizen scientists. Leena and her mom volunteer each summer to count the horseshoe crabs that visit their beach. With their dog Bobie at their sides, the duo spends a night on the shore surveying horseshoe crabs who have come to mate and lay eggs. Readers will learn valuable facts about these ancient animals and how they can get involved in the effort to conserve horseshoe crabs.

This work of narrative nonfiction includes a 4-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 30-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Moonlight Crab Count is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers. The Spanish translation supports ELL and dual-language programs. The enhanced ebook reads aloud in both English and Spanish with word highlighting and audio speed control to promote oral language skills, fluency, pronunciation, text engagement, and reading comprehension.

citizen science, environmental education, horseshoe crabs, life cycle, red knots, (bay), informed action, interconnectedness, migration

Contando los cangrejos herradura a la luz de la luna (Spanish version)

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Nonfiction, Animals, Childrens, Nature, Spanish Literature

32 pages, Paperback

Published February 9, 2017

Reviews

[Jasmine from How Useful It Is · Rating 5 out of 5]

About: Moonlight Crab Count is a children’s fiction picture book written by Dr. Neeti Bathala and Jennifer Keats Curtis and illustrated by Veronica V. Jones. It was recently released for sale on 2/10/17 by Arbordale Publishing, 32 pages. This book is intended for kids ages 4-8, grades K to 3. Arbordale Publishing’s mission is to inspire the love of reading and improve young children’s science and math skills through picture books. These books will captivate your kids’ minds on your lap, at bedtime, or in the classroom.

My Experience: I started reading Moonlight Crab Count on 3/9/17 as a story time for my 5 year-old son and we finished it on the same day. We read it again on 3/21/17. This book is great! I love it when kids take part in volunteering to protect nature. This exposure gives kids the opportunity to have an early hands on experience and to explore their minds to other living things. I love that in this book, Leena knows the proper vocabulary and the proper steps of handling the crab count. She helps her mom so often, she knows what to do.

In this book, readers will follow Leena, her dog Bobie, and her mom out on a boat adventure one night. They went to the beach near their home to look for horseshoe crabs and record down how many there were. The reason for this count is because the author informed us that experts worry that horseshoe crabs are disappearing. Medical companies rely on horseshoe crabs for its blood to test medicines and a particular shorebird, red knot, rely on horseshoe crabs’ eggs for survival. Without the eggs, red knot would become extinct. I like that Leena is very hands-on in helping her mom with the tasks. She makes sure they have all the gears before the trip and measures the water temperature using a thermometer and records the data down.

It’s our first time to learn about horseshoe crab. I’m glad the author explain what a horseshoe crab looks like and whether the tail is dangerous or just a tool for it to use to flip itself back up if it ever got knocked over. My son and I were also amazed to learn that horseshoe crab is as old as dinosaurs. It’s definitely a shocker for us to know that its blood is blue instead of red like us and the eggs are green! We love the facts at the end of the book too, especially how many eggs a female horseshoe crab can lay! It’s super cool to learn about what Ecologist do!

Pro: marine life, nature, animals, science, technology, kids involve in volunteering, the importance of horseshoe crabs

Con: none

I rate it 5 stars!

***Disclaimer: Many thanks to Arbordale Publishing for the opportunity to read and review. Please assured that my opinions are honest.

xoxo,
Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Moonlight Crab Count" is a great/educational illustrated children's story. We follow Leena, her mother, and her dog, Bobie, as they go to the beach to count the horseshoe crabs in the middle of the night. We learn some interesting facts about the crabs and also why it's important that they be counted. At the end of the book, there are a few pages with even more facts to go deeper into horseshoe crabs/science.

The illustrations are beautiful- full-paged and really realistic looking. The font is large, made for easy reading to a class, and I think this book would be a great addition to an elementary class. The pictures are great in terms of detail and interest and the font makes it easy to read- with the extra information at the end, it would be easy to make this into a classroom lesson. This is high quality educational picture book!

Please note that I received a copy through a goodreads giveaway. All opinions are my own.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

As anyone who knows much about those astonishing red knots who migrate from South America to the Arctic every year, stopping to dine in the Delaware Bay area, knows, horseshoe craps are essential to their livelihood. This picture book follows a mother and her daughter, Leena, and their dog Bobie as they spend an evening counting--estimating, really--the number of crabs that come ashore to lay their eggs. Back matter includes additional information on this species, a map, and suggestions for how young readers can get involved. Horseshoe crabs may be odd looking, but they are a very important species for many reasons, many of which are detailed here. I like the idea of ordinary individuals working to help a species, just as happens in Bat Count by the same publisher, and the explanation of what citizen scientist might do. I wish there were more suggestions for how to save and protect this species, though. The lovely illustrations use just the right amount of tones to make readers feel as though they, too, are working under cover of the night.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodreads winner. A beautifully illustrated children's picture book for all ages. The story is of a child and mother who volunteer to count horseshoe crabs that come on shore to mate and lay eggs. But it is so much more. It includes fun-facts about horseshoe crabs and also the connection of horseshoe crabs to other animals that depend on them for their survival. One of them is the Red Knot a threatened shorebird species. Protect the Earth. Keep all species safe. Save all animals from extinction.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is getting a bit scary... I had no idea Horseshoe crabs were endangered. I just finished Bat Count (white nose disease is decimating colonies...) and now these poor crabs. Two really unique creatures, too. Anyway, the book was very informative and has nice illustrations. Info at the end about the author and info on the counting and caring for the Horseshoe Crab.

[Gail Hollingsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leena, her mom and dog, Bobie, head out in a small boat to an island at night. This is when the horseshoe crabs come out of the water to land. They are becoming extinct and volunteers help count the population at different locations to keep up with the numbers. Leena calls out males, females, swimming, crawling, upside down and various other facts while her mother records them on a clipboard.
This was very interesting to me and had lots of facts in the back of the book about the horseshoe crabs. It would make a nice science lesson or an informative book for a young inquiring mind.
I won this book but was not required to write a review.

[Travis Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars copyright 2017 genre information non fiction theme conservation . Favorite part of the book was how it detailed the important uses of the crabs in medical research. I will use this in my future classroom to illustrate the importants of protecting wildlife.

[Tommie Branscum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story for the concept of the "citizen scientist". I also liked the facts about horseshoe crabs that were woven into the story format.

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Micha O'Connor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yet another snooze-fest from the good folks at Arbordale. Bless their hearts- there is a place for these books, but it’s not at the library. It would certainly make a good bedtime story though. The kids will be asleep before you ever count a crab.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying this series of books, and Moonlight Crab Count is no exception. I had no idea that volunteers counted animals until I read this and Bat Count.