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The Frog Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) |  | Author: Pamela S. Turner
Creator: Andy Comins
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $7.27
as of 11/8/2009 00:18 CST details
You Save: $10.73 (60%)
New (26) Used (12) from $6.39
Seller: maximumbooks
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 233508
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Pages: 64
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0618717161
Dewey Decimal Number: 597.8917279
EAN: 9780618717163
ASIN: 0618717161
Publication Date: July 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A capitivating and beautifully photographed Scientists in the Field title about a man trying to discover the effects pesticides have on frogs and, in turn, on us.
When Tyrone Hayes was growing up in South Carolina, he didnât worry about pesticides. He just liked to collect frogs. Tyroneâs interest in science led him to Harvard University, and though he struggled at first, he found his calling in the research lab of an amphibian scientist.
Meanwhile, scientists discovered that all around the globe, frogs were dying. The decline has many causes, including habitat loss and disease. Tyrone discovered that the most commonly used pesticide in the United States, atrazine, may also play a role. Tyrone tested atrazine on frogs in his lab at Berkeley. He found that the chemical caused some of the male frogs to develop into bizarre half-male, half-female frogs. What was going on? Thatâs what Tyrone wants to find out.
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| Customer Reviews:
Striking color photos lend excitement to this 58-page picturebook survey August 22, 2009
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Andy Comins provides the fine color photos to accompany THE FROG SCIENTIST, a survey of a field scientist whose interest in amphibians led to his work with all kinds of frogs. Striking color photos lend excitement to this 58-page picturebook survey which comes complete with an index and bibliography including websites of interest.
The Frog Scientist July 9, 2009
Connie Goldsmith (Sacramento, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Meet Dr. Tyrone Hayes, frog scientist extraordinaire. The author opens the book by taking us along on a field trip with Dr. Hayes and his graduate students as they collect leopard frogs from a Wyoming pond. Dr. Hayes will take the frogs back to his Berkeley lab to study how the commonly used pesticide atrazine affects their development. It feels like you're with the group at the pond in the cool morning air, splashing through water, squelching through mud, brushing clouds of mayflies from your face, and trying to wrangle the wily hoppers with big nets.
The second chapter flashes back in time to show us how a tough little African-American kid who grew up in a segregated south loved reptiles and amphibians so much that he ended up graduating from Harvard and UC Berkeley. That was 1989, the very year that scientists discovered that frogs were dying at an alarming rate around the world.
Fast forward to the future, when Dr. Hayes goes to work for the chemical company that makes atrazine. The firm wanted him to test the pesticide on frogs. But they didn't like what he found. Tiny amounts of the chemical "feminized" male frogs; they produced eggs in their testes rather than sperm! Obviously, they could not father future frogs. No wonder American frogs were dying out. But the company wouldn't allow Dr. Hayes to publish his findings, so he left to pursue his studies elsewhere.
The author skillfully takes the reader through the experiment that Dr. Hayes designed to test his hypothesis that atrazine causes feminized male frogs. Her writing is clear and concise, and she makes complex scientific concepts easy to understand and accessible to young readers. Profiles of Dr. Hayes' young lab assistants at work brighten the lively writing.
Spectacular color photos of numerous species of frogs, and of Dr. Hayes and his team at work in the field and in the laboratory further bring the story to life. These are real people, doing important work that potentially affects human beings as well as frogs. When real life is this dramatic and exciting, who needs fiction? This is one of the best nonfiction books I've read this year.
Connie Goldsmith
Chidren's book reviewer for California Kids, a Sacramento regional parenting publication.
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