WILD & WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY : A Riddle of Eels by Nicholas Day & Corey R. Tabor
ABOUT THE BOOK
From the author of the Sibert Medal–winning The Mona Lisa Vanishes and the illustrator of the Caldecott Honor book Mel Fell comes a slippery, wondrous exploration of a mysterious the eel. Often misunderstood, the eel has baffled scientists and befuddled philosophers for centuries.
You’d think a book about eels would tell you everything you need to know about where they’re born, how they grow, where they live, where they die. But the truth is far the more we think we know about eels, the more the mysterious creature wriggles away, leaving even experts scratching their heads.
And maybe this book tells you a few things about Eels. We know, for instance, that they are fish even though they look like snakes. But how can we ever know if we've got the complete picture on anything? Why are we so certain of our knowledge...till we're not?
With humor and expressive, bright illustrations, this book blends science and history to illuminate a real-life mystery that has puzzled great minds from Aristotle to Freud. Perfect for inquisitive readers and fans of weird-but-true stories, here is a celebration of curiosity and the unknown by a Sibert Medalist and a Caldecott Honoree--it reminds us that some questions are more magical when they don’t have simple answers.
REVIEW
The typical nonfiction book for children shares information that humans already know about a subject. A Riddle of Eels takes a different approach. The author takes readers into the challenges of gaining scientific knowledge especially with a creature as slippery as an eel. A few bits of information that are known about eels is shared through the book along with some of the incorrect ideas that have been put out there over the years. For example, Aristotle's conclusion that eels came from mud or Pliny the Elder who claimed eels reproduced by scraping themselves against rocks. These ideas seem absurd and yet how many things that people commonly believe now may someday be proven false? Not only is the book about eels and how difficult they are to study but a reminder of how much humanity still doesn't know about the earth and it's lifeforms. Some humor is slipped into the frank discussion of how difficult and messy learning can be making it seem like an opportunity for wonder rather than an exercise in futility. Tabor's bright watercolor and colored pencil art arranged digitally provides a nice compliment to both the text and humor. An eel wearing a baseball cap, anyone? While the book seems a bit long for a read aloud for grades K-2, it would work nicely for grades 3rd and up. The book would also make a great entry in a lesson about media and news literacy and not believing everything we hear. Recommended as a reminder that there is almost always more to learn.
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