
"Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas" Jim Ottaviani & Maris Wicks. Graphic Novel, 140 pages. 2013, First Second Books (8/10)
Primates is a book I saw on lists for a year before I actually picked it up. I've become a fan of Jim Ottaviani's non-fiction graphic novels over the last few years, and this is another in that same genre. His books are mostly biographies of scientists: Feynman, Bohr, Turing, an anthology of female scientists; also scientific advancements, like the Space Race and paleontology. He manages to blend the biographies of the scientists with their achievements, finding partners in illustrators who can bring life to both the human and the scientific parts of the equation.

The book breaks easily into three sections, each following the course of a scientist and the creatures they studied (and lived with). Goodall with chimpanzees, Fossey mountain gorillas, and Galdikas orangutans. I gotta say, apes kinda freak me out. I had a run-in with a chimp at a birthday party once, and ended up convinced that he was going to climb me and pull out my yellow hair and eat it like a banana. That isn't what happened, but ever since...I know I'm supposed to like them and think they're clever or whatever, but they give me the willies. This book may have helped heal some of that damage.

Wicks' style is cartoony, but in a way that makes the complex jungles and animals less distracting from the stories than a more realistic depiction might have been. We bond quickly with the people in the book, and maybe even more quickly with the animals. This is aided by the artwork. In order to tell three different biographies, Ottaviani and Wicks find a short of visual shorthand that moves the stories along quickly. Instead of explaining the lush jungles and family groupings and the foreign sounds of Africa and Indonesia, we're able to see it.

If you're a fan of biographies, or science, or (shudder) apes, this is a graphic novel worth your time. Ottaviani's always a solid choice, but this is one of his more entertaining, engaging books.
In the classroom, I can see splitting the book into the stories of the three primatologists, and having students compare their life stories, their research methods, and their findings. All three women have extensive primary sources, letters, journals, and photographs that students could use to explore the "real lives" of these women beyond the brief biographies that Ottaviani is able to provide in this format. Students could also do their own study of gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees, finding video on YouTube and completing their own observations, watching for behavior as Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas did. Finally, students could collaborate on a mapping activity, looking at the three different habitats, and researching the temperature, rainfall, and other characteristics that are necessary for great apes to live.
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