★★★★★
When she was just one and a half, Jane took a handful of earthworms to bed with her. As soon as Jane’s mom explained that worms need soil to live, Jane ran outside and returned the worms to their garden.
Jane Goodall has always loved animals – she would watch them for hours and learn as much as she could about their habitats and behaviors.
When she grew up, she was granted the opportunity to move from England to study chimpanzees in Africa, and (of course) she leapt at that chance.
And as soon as she got into the field, she literally just sat and waited and watched and took notes.
Mr. McGregor, one of the first chimps Jane met, was often grumpy, so Jane named him after the crabby gardener in the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Jane often gave the animals human characteristics because, well, they behaved like humans – showing joy, anger and sadness.
She published all of her discoveries and then went back for a formal degree in science.
When she was back in school…her teachers had a few words for her.
Right away, her professors told her that she was doing it all wrong! The said that real scientists labeled animals with numbers, not names.
But, she knew she was right – and so she went off to prove them wrong and to show that everyone, even the animals, had a little bit of human in them.
Jane Goodall is one of my absolute favorite scientists – and this book truly did her justice.
I loved the way she completely revolutionized the field and find it so completely and utterly inspiring.
This book is relatively short but it’s the kind of book where you know that each sentence is chosen with care. It really does a great job of conveying her entire life across a few short pages.
The characterization of Jane Goodall was excellent – she came to life in this book and I adored it.
I absolutely LOVED the illustrations – they took the book and brought it to the next level. In particular, when Jane was a little girl in the chicken coop – so incredibly cute.
All in all, this book was FABULOUS – I loved it to death and I cannot wait to see what Katz writes next!!
A huge thank you to Callisto Publisher’s Club and Rockridge Press for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review
Interested in this one from Susan B Katz? Buy it here: Amazon
Miranda Reads 