Threads from the Web of Life: Stories in Natural History

by Stephen Daubert

Overview

A Selection of the Discovery Channel Book Club

In sixteen stories Steve Daubert pulls the reader into the mystery and immediacy of ecological processes spanning a range from microscopic to tectonic, from microscopic to cosmic forces. Each tale brings the reader into the moment to witness an episode of survival in the wild first-hand. The material is presented on a level of intimacy and detail not usually encountered in other styles of natural history writing.

These creative non-fiction stories provide not just a bird's eye view (though that's true for the owls, warblers, condors, and hummingbirds in the book), but a wasp's eye view, a mouse's, a sea turtle's, a squid's. Sometimes the focus is as small as the detritus on the forest floor, or a single beat of the wing of a gull. Other stories range across evolutionary time. From whales and dinosaurs to creatures invisible to the naked eye, author and illustrator bring to life the dynamic interplay of living, evolving creatures and the natural forces that have shaped their worlds.

The book includes chapter notes that document the scientific basis for each story and describe the controversies still surrounding some of them — a splendid resource for families to read and share.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826515094
Publisher:	Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date:	02/10/2006
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	11 - 14 Years

About the Author

Stephen Daubert is a retired career scientist in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California–Davis. He has published two books of stories from natural history with Vanderbilt University Press: Threads from the Web of Life and The Shark and the Jellyfish, currently available in one deluxe paperback.

Reading Group Guide

Frigate-Jellyfish

Editorial Reviews

Each of these happenings is a thread in the intricate web of life, and Daubert, a molecular scientist at the University of California, Davis, demonstrates that these threads are easily broken by humans . . . instructive and entertaining . . .
—Publishers Weekly

Highly recommended . . . The stories are as much enjoyable as they are informative.
—Science Books & Films

Threads from the Web of Life takes readers on a journey around the globe as the author describes unique and unusual ecological processes. It is ideal for casual reading as well as a source of selections to read aloud (!) or to link literature with the study of natural history.
—NSTA [National Science Teachers Association] Recommends

From the Publisher

Daubert illustrates 16 ecological processes with lively narratives in which he envisions how it might feel to be at the center of the action: for example, traveling with a green sea turtle from its feeding grounds in Brazil to its nesting beaches 2,000 kilometers away on Ascension Island in the eastern Atlantic; riding whirling air currents with migrating American white pelicans; or fleeing from a predator swordfish with a school of neon flying squid. Some of the tales cover evolutionary events taking place over millions of years, such as the account of the tarweed plant that five million years ago made an ocean voyage from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Hawaiian archipelago, where it metamorphosed into the silver sword plant. Each of these happenings is a thread in the intricate web of life, and Daubert, a molecular scientist at the University of California, Davis, demonstrates that these threads are easily broken by humans, as when overkill by commercial whalers depletes a food source for creatures that feed on whale carcasses. His natural history tales are instructive and entertaining, and each is followed by an annotation explaining the science behind it. Illus. not seen by PW. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly