I didn’t know what a tardigrade was before reading this book.
To view tardigrades clearly, you’ll need to pop them under a microscope and magnify them up to 100 times. They look like caterpillars in sleeping bags and are sometimes called water bears because they have ‘snouts and claws and have a bit of a clumsy way of walking in water’.
Their nickname is ‘moss piglets’ as they like to live in the water that you find clinging to moss. They have eight legs and are not closely related to any other animal. With no teeth, they have sword-shaped ‘stylets’ inside their heads that they use to push out of their mouths to spear their food, then they vacuum up their dinner.
These fascinating little creatures have been on Earth for around 600 million years having survived by adapting in myriad ways. This includes growing extra skin which is called ‘cuticle’ over their existing one, turning it into tough cysts to protect them and then being able to shed this at will. They are able to roll up into a ball called a ‘tun’. They dry out and go into a deep sleep until it’s safe to re-emerge as normal tardigrades.
This terrific book gives us an eye-opening lesson about these minute living things. Written in an engaging way children will love the facts and young budding scientists will be encouraged to get out the microscope. Even I can’t stop talking about tardigrades at the dinner table.
Reviewed by Rowena Morcom
Age Guide 6+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
Dr Anne Therese Morgan began her working life as a teacher and is now a full-time writer. Her picture book The Way of the Weedy Seadragon was a CBCA Notable Book and shortlisted in the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature.
Jennifer Falkner is an illustrator based in Perth, Australia. Jennifer’s work is inspired by her passion for nature, the antics of her two boys and her time spent working in South-East Asia.
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