Early Book Review: Bionic Beasts: Saving Animal Lives with Artificial Flippers, Legs, and Beaks by Jolene Gutiérrez

Bionic Beasts: Saving Animal Lives with Artificial Flippers, Legs, and Beaks by Jolene Gutiérrez is currently scheduled for release on October 6 2020. What happens when a young elephant steps on a buried land mine, or when a sea turtle’s flipper is injured by a predator? Thanks to recent advances in technology, we have new ways to design and build prosthetic body parts that can help these animals thrive. Readers will meet an Asian elephant named Mosha, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle named Lola, a German Shepherd named Cassidy, a greylag goose named Vitória, and Pirate, a Berkshire-Tamworth pig. Each of these animals was struggling, but through a variety of techniques and technologies, humans created devices that enabled the animals to live and move more comfortably. Discover the stories of how veterinarians, doctors, and even students from around the world used 3D printing and other techniques to build bionic body parts for these amazing animals.

Bionic Beasts: Saving Animal Lives with Artificial Flippers, Legs, and Beaks is an inspiring look at what people can do to help animals live a better life. I had seen some of these stories before, mostly as part of documentaries or animal shows on television, but this book gave me a much better appreciation for the care, determination, and craftsmanship that was required to make these things happen. The thought, ingenuity, and trial and error that went into improving the lives of these animals was inspiring and can lead the scientific and medical communities to even better solutions and advances in the future.  I thought the writing was well done and accessible to readers, and the layouts of the pages balanced text and images nicely. I really liked that there were experiments for readers to try, and a quality resources in the endpages for engaged readers.

Bionic Beasts: Saving Animal Lives with Artificial Flippers, Legs, and Beaks is a great read for animal loves and inspiring scientists of all kinds. 

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