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Pacific Grove, CA 93950
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Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW, July 26, 2012
Julie Danielson , Kirkus Book Blog Network, September 14, 2012
Endorsement for Not Your Typical Book about the Environment
[Not Your Typical Book About the Environment offers] a smart approach, and one that should inspire.
—Publishers Weekly
What a wonderful and fun compilation!! I love it! Definitely not just for kids. My colleagues and I each found sets of useful information for both our work and community projects.
—Johan Stroman
Director of BC Green Learning
In Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales, Elin Kelsey provides an in depth look into one of the world's most magnificent creatures. I'm sure these stories will amaze and inspire you as they did me. A joy to read.
—Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE
Founder, The Jane Goodall Institute
UN Messenger of Peace
I absolutely loved your book! Your interview was great! Everybody loved it!
—Vibeke Venema, Producer Womans Hour, BBC Radio 4
Watching Giants reads like dispatches from the frontiers of marine science, covering everything from homosexuality in dolphins to whale intelligence, culture, and conservation with extraordinary insight. Superbly written and highly recommended."
—Erich Hoyt
Senior Fellow, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
author of Creatures of the Deep and The Earth Dwellers
Watching Giants is a wonderful book about animals whose complex social relationships and deep emotional lives are difficult to observe and even more difficult to understand. I know for certain that after reading this book, others will learn as much about whales and their underwater environment as I did from traveling with Elin Kelsey.
—Marc Bekoff
author of The Emotional Lives of Animals, Animals Matter, and Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals
Prepare to be immersed in a different world. Like sitting down to a long dinner with a delightful and erudite friend who is about to tell you everything you need to know about the ocean, this absorbing book will let you see the ocean and its creatures in a way that you never imagined possible."
—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
author of When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals
Strange New Species gives a fascinating overview, in an engaging format, of the current state of knowledge about all the weird and wonderful critters that share the planet with us.
—BookLoons Reviews
The press blurb calls this book ‘riveting’ and ‘groundbreaking’ and it really is. ...This is a fascinating science book, well-written and full of glorious color photographs.
—Canadian Children's Book News
Kelsey’s infectious eagerness and her eye for the kid-friendly detail may have what it takes to convert the most confirmed science-phobes.
—Kirkus Reviews
With many excellent photos, this introductory book on new species will be an intriguing addition to classroom units on classification or biology.
—Booklist
A multitude of photographs, capsule biographies of scientists and modern explorers, and a seemingly bottomless supply of amazing facts and figures about creatures, great and small, make this book a most appetizing prospect for the curious.
—Globe and Mail (Books)
Published by Maple Tree Press, [Strange New Species] is aimed at kids 7 to 15, but is interesting enough to keep an adult flicking the pages.
—Globe & Mail (Focus)
Kelsey covers an enormous amount of ground herself, explaining complex scientific theories, technologies and practices in language that’s easy for kids to understand…DNA, microbial life on Mars and genetic modification are all graspable in her clear prose laced with humor. She has just the right tone to reach kids and communicate the excitement of cutting-edge science.
—San Francisco Chronicle
Utterly absorbing, Elin Kelsey’s excellent discussion of recently discovered species boggles the mind with every turn of the page. ....Fantastic photographs, amazing facts, cutting edge information about cloning, transgenic pets, GM foods, and recently discovered species that scientists are busily classifying and studying, make this a real page-turner, a classic case of truth being stranger than fiction.
—Island Pareent Magazine
In a conversational writing style that young readers will find inviting, Kelsey clearly chows she enjoys her topic. On every page, intriguing facts will encourage kids to sharpen their observation skills…Sidebars throughout the book will inspire debate…Highly recommended.
—CM Magazine
With the help of vivid photographs on every page, Strange New Species tells…many…believe-it-or-not tales from biology, and includes short profiles of the fascinating scientists uncovering them.
—Victoria Times Colonist
You may think there is nothing new under the sun, but Kelsey shows readers that there’s a lot that is ‘new’—and there’s plenty more out there...Colour photos and glossy pages catch the eye...and it’s full of tidbits to entice browsers into further investigations, and perhaps lure them into scientific careers of their own.
—School Library Journal
Strange New Species, is filled with amazing information and anecdotes. [It] will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the fascinating natural world stil unfolding around us. It is highly recommended.
—Resource Links
Elin Kelsey has assured prolonged interest in her newest book through design and ease of access to her information. The photographs are telling, the text is easy to follow, and the information provided is quite amazing.
—Brandon Sun
Kelsey packs her book with colourful photos, interesting facts, and scientist/explorer profiles. A great book for those keen to learn more about the world around them.
—BC Parent
[A] new and notable book of scientific interest...this guide is sure to inspire some children to investigate the animals in their own backyards.
—Science News
This valuable introduction to the field is the kind of text that stimulates young science lovers into exploring a scientific career.
—Deakin Newsletter



Elin Kelsey has produced a highly engaging book, pointing out surprising connections between kids’ lives and the rest of the planet. The illustrations are fantastic and make a complex subject—conservation and sustainable living—easy to understand. A wonderful book for educating children—and adults—about the environment.
—Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE
Founder, The Jane Goodall Institute
UN Messenger of Peace
Recent review from the American Cetacean Society...
Other reviews...
Kelsey, a scientist and author (Saving Sea Otters), meditates in 20 linked essays on the resident and visiting cetaceans—including whales, dolphins and orcas—of the Gulf of California. To convey what's known and suspected about the underwater mammalian lifestyle, Kelsey interviews dozens of contemporary ocean scientists—Exequiel Ezcurra, Bruce Mate, Fred Sharpe, husband-and-wife team Hal Whitehead and Linda Weilgart—and places their research in context alongside data on African elephant herds, antelope and wildebeest feeding strategies, the behaviors of predators and (especially) the dynamics of her own family (mom to two young daughters, Kelsey's first chapter is titled "Extreme Motherhood"). Focusing on social relationships and culture, Kelsey finds research (including submarine observations of sea-floor whale carcasses) that reveals some critical and previously unsuspected roles. Brilliant at pursuing seemingly unrelated trails back down the blowhole, Kelsey illuminates the "humanity" of whales, and the human threat to them; for instance, she explains why canned tuna is never really "dolphin safe" (motorized boats used to herd dolphins away from tuna cause sonic chaos, separating mothers from pups with often fatal results). Kelsey's cogent, compassionate work makes clear the sophistication and importance of whale communities, and how current efforts to save them may not be enough.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
An appealing, agitating foray into the world of whales that ignites both protective instincts and a hungry curiosity to know more. (Read more...)
—Kirkus Reviews
—Bay Nature Institute
The Studio
762 Laurel Avenue
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
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