Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I didn’t actually check Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas out of the library myself; my friend Britt checked it out for her animal-loving daughter and then sent it my way during quarantine once they were finished with it. I’ve had it ever since, and since it’s likely to be due any day now, I brought it to Idaho with me last week. I don’t get a great deal of time to read while visiting Idaho, but a shorter graphic novel is the perfect sort of book for just that reason. I started it my first night there and finished it the next, and I learned all kinds of things I didn’t know.

For starters, I’d never heard of Birute (please imagine an accent mark over that “e”) Galdikas OR her orangutan research. The name Dian Fossey rang a bell, but I don’t think I could have linked her to gorillas without help; Jane Goodall was the only one of the three women I really knew about. Reading Primates taught me something about all three–their focus areas, their methods, and the attitudes with which they approached their work. I found it fascinating, and my older girls found it interesting as well; I’m actually excited to look into similar nonfiction graphic novels. If you have an animal- or science-lover in latter elementary school or beyond, this one’s definitely worth a read, and if you don’t, well…it still is.