The snail with the right heart : a true story /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

★ A Kirkus Best Book of 2021: A Best Informational Picture Book
★ A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings ) Best Children's Book of 2021
★ A Spirituality & Practice Best Spiritual Book of 2021
Based on a real scientific event and inspired by a beloved real human in the author's life, this is a story about science and the poetry of existence...
The Snail with the Right Heart is a story about time and chance, genetics and gender, love and death, evolution and infinity--concepts often too abstract for the human mind to fathom, often more accessible to the young imagination; concepts made fathomable in the concrete, finite life of one tiny, unusual creature dwelling in a pile of compost amid an English garden. Emerging from this singular life is a lyrical universal invitation not to mistake difference for defect and to welcome, across the accordion scales of time and space, diversity as the wellspring of the universe's beauty and resilience.
This boldly illustrated book about evolution for children features a large gatefold that opens up to immerse readers in the story and will help kids understand that nature is all about differentiation and that being different is beautiful.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In a paean to the value of individual differences that is presented on a cosmic scale, Brain Pickings founder Popova (Figuring, for adults) relates the real-life story of Jeremy, a rare garden snail found in 2015 by a retired London scientist, whose shell spiraled to the left, signifying reversed internal anatomy--including a heart positioned on the right. Because of this, Jeremy, a hermaphrodite like all garden snails, required a similarly rare mate to procreate. Against a backdrop of biology, history, and genetics, Popova calls attention to differences of ability and the problem of the gender binary. In doing so, she elegantly underscores the desirability of genetic and other kinds of diversity, which is "always lovelier than sameness" and makes communities "stronger and better able to adapt to change." The book succeeds more as allegory than as informational text, with passages that bounce between metaphorical and scientific descriptions of gastropod reproduction and genetics. Ping Zhu's (The Strange Birds of Flannery O'Connor) art, however, turns a book about a humble snail into a riot of vibrant color, making for a celebration of the "strange and lovely little snail with a left-coiling shell and a right heart" that is shot through with a strange loveliness of its very own. Ages 7--12. (Feb.)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 2--4--This long, complex science picture book begins with a poetic description of the ancient origin of snails. A mysterious event (mutation) caused living creatures to form in the ocean. Mutation is a theme throughout the text, with the featured snail demonstrating the effect of recessive genes. The book's title might suggest that this is a story with a moral, but it's a biological indication of this snail's irregular physical characteristics. Its shell swirls to the left, unlike that of most snails, and its heart is located on the right rather than the left side of its body. Later on in the narrative, Dr. Angus Davidson asks everyday citizens to be on the lookout for other right-hearted snails for him to breed and study. Could such irregular genetic occurrences apply to humans? The text then explains snails' sexual identity and how they reproduce. Snails are hermaphrodites: Their bodies are both male and female. However, two snails often copulate "because diversity is always lovelier than sameness, and because it makes communities stronger and more able to adapt to change." Davidson's attempts at breeding are anti-climactic. He does not find any new right-hearted snails, but someday this rarity could occur again. Zhu's softly swirled paintings are rendered in shades of blue, green, orange, and yellow. VERDICT The romantic and anthropomorphic aspects of the story and explanations will appeal to some adult readers, and some parents and teachers may find this useful for introductory discussions of genetics, diversity, or evolution with children.--Margaret Bush, Simmons Coll., Boston

Horn Book Review

A snail possessing a rare left-spiraling shell is found by scientists and named Jeremy, even though it is not male but a hermaphrodite, like all snails. Jeremy not only has a "reversed" shell but its entire anatomy is flipped. This means Jeremy cannot mate with the overwhelming majority of snails because its reproductive parts won't line up with theirs. Popova skillfully employs metaphor to connect Jeremy's story to the underlying science of evolution, as in presenting the explanation of why snails, who can reproduce on their own, prefer to seek a mate: "because diversity is always lovelier than sameness, and because it makes communities stronger and better able to adapt to change." When scientists put out a call to the public to assist Jeremy in finding a partner with the "right" heart -- a clever dual meaning -- the search for sinistral snails turns up two, eventually allowing Jeremy to mate. Zhu's illustrations, filled with swirling expanses of color, brilliantly portray the concept of a recessive gene as a tiny but persistent snail silhouette inches across the pages and through geologic time. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

A poetic introduction to evolution, mutation, and the necessary reproduction to achieve both along the way. Author Popova takes readers on a journey through time, beginning with the emergence of single-celled organisms and ending on another one-in-a-million chance: a potential future snail with a particular, rare recessive gene. Gentle, lyrical text briefly outlines the evolution of modern life on Earth before introducing Jeremy, a common garden snail with a rare left-spiraling shell, found by chance by a human scientist who had recently listened to a snail researcher on the radio. So begins Jeremy the snail's path to the spotlight--with a few detours to touch on human politics, the concept of gender, and a floral metaphor or two about genetics. Tread lightly: The vivid and memorable (but never prurient) description of the mechanics of snail reproduction and the use of the scientific term hermaphrodite without discussion of the more polite ways humans might describe other humans (as opposed to snails) may produce some interesting family conversations. However, Zhu's soft, opaque illustrations of life on Earth, prehistoric and modern, micro and macro, are sure to enchant readers of all ages. The oversized trim allows her to play up the snail's tininess in long perspectives, and close-ups are luscious; both enhance the narration's sense of playful awe. A story as charmingly mesmerizing as a silvery snail's trail on a summer morning. (Informational picture book. 6-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Maria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library ofCongress permanent web archive of culturally valuable materials. She is theauthor of Figuring , co-editor of A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader , and the creator and hostof The Universe in Verse--an annual charitable celebration of science throughpoetry at the interdisciplinary cultural center Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.
Ping Zhu 's illustrations are frequently seen in the New York Times andother reputable publications, but also some questionable ones. She is agraduate of ArtCenter and gave tours there as a work-study job. In 2013, shewon the ADC Young Guns award for being simultaneously young and talented.Though she is no longer eligible for "30 Under 30" accolades, her goal in lifeis to create work that will ideally age well like a fine wine. Or even an okaywine. Ping's children's book debut, The Strange Birds of Flannery O'Connor, A Life , published in June 2020and was selected by the New York Times as a Best Children's Book of2020.