Magnificent wonders

Animals can’t speak human languages, but their behavior and brains reveal a lot about how they make decisions and stay alive. In Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals With Magnificent Minds (MIT Kids Press, 152 pp.), author Christina Couch explores the cognitive abilities of six creatures, all of which use their brains very differently from how humans use theirs.

Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds Christina Couch

An eastern gray squirrel, for example, hides 3,000 nuts and seeds in the span of six weeks. But how does it remember where it stashed them months later? As Couch explains, the squirrel’s hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, literally expands, and the squirrel develops mnemonic devices and mapping strategies for locating its stash.

Other animal brains continue to baffle scientists. One endangered Hawaiian bird sleeps with half of its brain still turned on. An octopus’s arms walk independently of each other and the animal’s brain, but how the arms coordinate no one knows. Even the brainless jellyfish gets a shoutout: Instead of one cranial command center, nerve networks cover its gelatinous body from bell to bottom.

The book does include one brief mention of evolution, describing it as the process by which living creatures pass down better survival skills and desirable traits. For an alternative read, consider Tricia Goyer and Sherri Seligson’s similar science-themed book, Wonders of the Ocean Realm (Tyndale Kids, 164 pp.), which explores God’s underwater creation.

Wonders of the Ocean Realm Tricia Goyer & Sherri Seligson

If there was an award for best camouflage, the mimic octopus would take top honors. The normally smooth and beige mollusk instantly changes color and texture to fit whatever it is in front of. If that should be a coarse piece of gray coral—poof!—now the creature’s skin is gray and bumpy.

That’s just one of the many unique defenses employed by the five sea creatures Goyer and Seligson profile. Rather than presenting detached, textbook-like descriptions, their book names each animal and imagines what is on each creature’s mind. Astrid the multicolor sea star starts out as an orphaned, defenseless blob that gradually grows arms and learns to evade predators by hiding between rocks. Luna the deep-sea anglerfish dangles a bioluminescent bulb powered by special bacteria to attract little fish into her big mouth.

Although no one really knows what Astrid or Luna is thinking, Goyer and Seligson’s short stories are believable. Vlad Stankovic’s illustrations further serve as reminders that these are real animals, not fictional characters.

Accompanying this educational book’s descriptive stories are reflection questions that allow middle grade readers to think deeper about God’s purpose in designing these creatures. If God gave the peacock mantis shrimp vibrant colors and powerful punching claws, the authors encourage readers to ponder what unique qualities He gave them to serve and glorify Him.