Summertime Sleepers

 

Have you ever heard of (a)estivation?

In fact it's the opposite of hibernation.
Some animals sleep their way through summer.

Learn all about this interesting phenomenon and some amazing creatures in this blogpost!

 

 

 

This superb book (Summertime Sleepers) was available on Netgalley.
Reading it made me super enthusiastic!

Want to know why? Discover it in my review:

 

As a child we all learned about hibernation

But have you ever heard of 'estivation'?

 

Beautiful illustrations alongside interesting facts will delight young ánd old!

Read about all these animals who - during summer - put their lives on hold

 

 

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Interesting phenomenon

 

Everyone knows animals who sleep their way through wintertime.

But can you name some who sleep during summer?

Have you ever even heard of this phenomenon which is called 'estivation'?

Most of us haven't.

 

Neither did Melissa Stewart.

Until a hot June day in 2011, when she was scanning the shelves in the natural history section of her town library and stumbled on a 250-page tome on hibernation. It contained only a single paragraph on estivation.

But that was enough to spark her curiosity and to get her searching for more info in science journals and their reference sections.

Thanks to her perseverance to present her gained knowledge in an attractive picture book, more people will now be able to learn about this less known phenomenon.

 

The beautiful illustrations are made by Sarah S. Brannen.

She has clearly put a lot of thought in the way of presentation of the animals. As she also explains in an afterword, she had to show animals in sleeping positions. But how could she avoid a too sleepy feeling or too static images?
An original idea occured to her: she would show the animals both sleeping and wide-awake.
To make a clear distinction, she made warm watercolors of the animals when they are resting. These main illustrations reveal how and where each animal estivates.
Alongside these watercolors there are also black-and-white sketchbook pages picturing the animals when they're awake. On these drawn sketches Melissa was able to share more of the scientific information she gathered, like the size of the animals, in which part of the world to find them and some other interesting facts.

And it must be said: this concept turned out brilliantly!
To get an idea of how it looks like, you can take a look at the animated movie here.

 

 

A book that grows along

 

At the end of the book there are three pages of text in which a bit of additional info is given about the discussed animals.

Some readers believe that it would've been better if all the info about each animal was bundled in one place instead of a part being presented along with the pictures and another part at the end of the book.

But you could also consider this structure as an asset, because it makes this book very well suited for different kinds of public and thus can 'grow along' with the (increasing interest of) children.

 

Young children can simply go through the book without going into the details and just be amazed by the colorful pictures and all these special animals.

Children who are a bit older can read the extra information at the end of the book which creates more depth and allows them to dive deeper into the subject of estivation (if they wish to do so).

For all the curiosity seekers (and especially adults) there's also the mentioning of extra source material which form excellent starting points if you wish to learn more about this fascinating subject.

 

 

STEM

 

More and more children's books fall under the category of STEM-books.
For those who don't know what STEM means, it's the abbreviation for four closely connected areas of study: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 

One thing's for sure: this is an absolute topper in the genre!

Firstly, it's based upon a lesser known subject which makes it interesting for both young ánd old.

Secondly, this book can be used to teach various STEM-subjects. Because not only does it bring biology to life, but geography as well. Let children search on a world map where the animals live,  let them search for extra information on the internet, …

Actually there are so many teaching options thinkable, not only at home but also (and maybe foremost) at school. If you're short of ideas, make sure to take a look at the book extensions on Melissa's website! In the right column you'll  find a Teacher's guide, Read aloud guide, Readers theater, Revision decisions (interactive teaching tool) and a video Rockin' Research.

 

 

Warning

 

This book can have serious side effects. The most reported one is that it makes you really want to know even more about estivation.
(For your information: Aestivation has a total different meaning when you talk about flowers instead of animals! It then refers to the mode of arrangement of sepals or petals in a flower bud with respect to one another)

 

Out of curiosity I looked around on the internet.

Although there isn't that much material available, I found some really interesting footage.

If you want, you can head over to my blog World of Tau to view some short movies.

 

The website of author Melissa Stewart can be found here.

The website of illustrator Sarah S. Brannen can be found here.

 

 

A very interesting movie from SciShow explains quite clearly what estivation is and shows some examples :

 

 

We all know that National Geographic has amazing footage.
In the first movie you can see water holding frogs in action.
In the second one you learn how the African lungfish survives hot summers.

 

 

 

BBC is also known for their beautiful footage.
In following one you can discover how a mugger crocodile passes his summers.

It almost sounds like a thriller:

 

For adults there's this interesting scientific article (too difficult for children).

 

If you find other interesting sources about summertime sleepers, don't hesitate to share them in the comments!