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A review by larrys
Dogs: From Predator to Protector by Andy Hirsch
4.0
I have a 10 year old who:
1. Loves dogs
2. Is interested in science
3. Loves graphic novels
So this was an obvious choice for her. She says "It was great. I loved it."
She's been asking lately, "How did wolves turn into dogs?" so I tried The Magic of Reality. Richard Dawkins talks to kids like he talks to women -- doesn't have a clue -- so that fell flat. (On the other hand, I think adults can get quite a lot out of Dawkins' science writing.) After his section on wolves she still had no idea about evolution, which is a bummer because I thought he made it clear.
The first third of this book is not well-simplified. To be fair, evolution is a counterintuitive concept. It must be, or most of the world's population would accept it. Genetics gets even more complicated, and there's a good argument to be made that high school genetics should move beyond the punnet squares to reflect at least a little of the modern understanding around epigenetics.
I read this comic myself before handing it to the ten-year-old, and was a little disappointed at how the punnet square basics were handled. It happens I listened to Carl Zimmer in an interview earlier this week, talking about Mendel and his peas. Zimmer makes an entire career out of explaining difficult concepts in a simple way, and it's no surprise Zimmer does a better job of it, even though he's talking to adults. You can't really mention the peas without talking about smooth and wrinkly peas, but as presented in this comic? Clear as mud. Here's the problem: Sticking pictures next to dry text doesn't fix the dry text.
I quizzed the ten-year-old because I'm interested to hear how much she picked up. She seems to have grasped the idea that puppies are a mix of their parents, but I hope she knew that already.
I'd recommend this comic to, say, year tens rather than ten-year-olds. For younger than ten, if they persevere through the genetics section they'll eventually hit upon what this comic should have been from the beginning -- a light-hearted and easy-to-understand insight into what it might be like to be a dog.
1. Loves dogs
2. Is interested in science
3. Loves graphic novels
So this was an obvious choice for her. She says "It was great. I loved it."
She's been asking lately, "How did wolves turn into dogs?" so I tried The Magic of Reality. Richard Dawkins talks to kids like he talks to women -- doesn't have a clue -- so that fell flat. (On the other hand, I think adults can get quite a lot out of Dawkins' science writing.) After his section on wolves she still had no idea about evolution, which is a bummer because I thought he made it clear.
The first third of this book is not well-simplified. To be fair, evolution is a counterintuitive concept. It must be, or most of the world's population would accept it. Genetics gets even more complicated, and there's a good argument to be made that high school genetics should move beyond the punnet squares to reflect at least a little of the modern understanding around epigenetics.
I read this comic myself before handing it to the ten-year-old, and was a little disappointed at how the punnet square basics were handled. It happens I listened to Carl Zimmer in an interview earlier this week, talking about Mendel and his peas. Zimmer makes an entire career out of explaining difficult concepts in a simple way, and it's no surprise Zimmer does a better job of it, even though he's talking to adults. You can't really mention the peas without talking about smooth and wrinkly peas, but as presented in this comic? Clear as mud. Here's the problem: Sticking pictures next to dry text doesn't fix the dry text.
I quizzed the ten-year-old because I'm interested to hear how much she picked up. She seems to have grasped the idea that puppies are a mix of their parents, but I hope she knew that already.
I'd recommend this comic to, say, year tens rather than ten-year-olds. For younger than ten, if they persevere through the genetics section they'll eventually hit upon what this comic should have been from the beginning -- a light-hearted and easy-to-understand insight into what it might be like to be a dog.