Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel

by Nancy F. Castaldo

Overview

In Beastly Brains, Castaldo delves into the minds of animals and explores animal empathy, communication, tool use, and social societies through interviews and historical anecdotes. Researchers from Charles Darwin to Jane Goodall have spent years analyzing the minds of animals, and today’s science is revolutionizing old theories and uncovering surprising similarities to our own minds. Humans are not alone in our ability to think about ourselves, make plans, help each other, or even participate in deception. You’ll think differently about the animals on this planet—maybe it’s their world and we’re just living in it!
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544633353
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	629,489
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	11 - 15 Years

About the Author

Nancy Castaldo has been writing about the planet for decades. She’s contributed to the Sierra Club Waste Paper, NRDC’s Personal Action column, and others. She is the author of many STEM books including, Sniffer Dogs: How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save the World, Back from The Brink: Saving Animals From Extinction, and Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Website: nancycastaldo.com
Twitter: @NCastaldoAuthor
Instagram: @naturespeak

Editorial Reviews

02/06/2017
Castaldo (The Story of Seeds) presents a thought-provoking look at the minds and perceptions of animals, as well as the way human understanding of the subject has evolved, as she describes a series of studies designed to examine cognition in animals. On “Monkey Island”—off the coast of Puerto Rico—researchers observed how monkeys exhibited humanlike tendencies when a form of “currency” was introduced into their community; dolphins have been shown to recognize themselves in mirrors; and dogs have displayed signs of jealousy in experiments. Castaldo makes the science behind the studies clear, particularly the moral ramifications with regard to human treatment of animals: “The issue is no longer accepting that animals think: it’s now the challenge of figuring out how they think and what we will do with that information.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

* "This eye-opening, cogent, and well-structured volume will enlighten students to both the richness of the animal kingdom and the nature of intelligence itself." — Booklist, STARRED review "Castaldo (The Story of Seeds) presents a thought-provoking look at the minds and perceptions of animals, as well as the way human understanding of the subject has evolved..." —Publishers Weekly "The information is conveyed in an enticing way that is sure to spark the interest of aspiring naturalists and researchers... A fascinating take on animal science for tween and teen zoologists." — School Library Journal —

From the Publisher

01/01/2017
Gr 7 Up—Calling all animal lovers! Whether students are working on a report or looking for a browsable title, this volume is just the ticket. Castaldo presents current research on how a variety of creatures, such as dolphins, dogs, elephants, and more, communicate, problem solve, feel, etc. The information is conveyed in an enticing way that is sure to spark the interest of aspiring naturalists and researchers. The extensive back matter elevates this work above other wild kingdom—related compendiums. VERDICT A fascinating take on animal science for tween and teen zoologists.—Helen Foster James, University of California at San Diego

School Library Journal

2016-12-26
An exploration of animal intelligence.Castaldo opens with a discussion of brainpower before summarizing historical thinking on animal cognition and then presenting evidence of it, in the form of a dizzying array of experiments on such subtopics as decision-making, empathy, a sense of fairness, and communication, among others. Candy-colored pastel shades and striking photographs make flipping the pages a pleasure, but actually reading them is something of a chore. Sidebars often appear out of sequence with the text and are of varying levels of utility, as is also the case with photo captions. Low points include a reference to the author's middle school report on dolphins and a photograph of a dolphin alone in a tank that's labeled, "A dolphin at the National Aquarium is studied by cognitive researchers." Chapters are broken up into subtopics with catchy headings ("The Hive Brain"; "Emo Rats") except when they are not, as with a relatively lengthy discussion of interspecies communication that wanders from bonobos to dolphins to Peter Gabriel to orangutans. The book's sense of its audience is uncertain. Profligate use of exclamation points and simplistic "what would you do" scenarios seem geared to younger readers, while the un-glossed use of such terms as "habeas corpus" and "prosocial," as well as a conceptually complex model of brain processing, assumes a fairly sophisticated audience. The book's high-interest topic is ill-served by its execution. (resources, glossary, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews