Birding Is My Favorite Video Game: Cartoons about the Natural World from Bird and Moon (Updated Edition)

Here's another book I was able to get this book on Amazon, and while not compensated by the company except for getting it for free, I did post this review on their listing for the book. Rest assured, this is my honest opinion and rating of the book.

Science writer and comic artist Rosemary Mosco loves nature. She also has a specific sense of humor that is very much attuned to mother nature. This is a collection of some of her published comic strips as well as being a deluxe edition that includes all-new material. 

Mosco's passion seems to be birds, as chapters on our fine feathered friends bookend sections on the ever changing seasons, insects, and plants. Don't worry, ornithophiles, more toons about birds are peppered throughout!  Not being an academic, some of the cartoonist's punchlines went over my layperson head. It doesn't mean that I wasn't consistently entertained or at least educated. 

There's a touch of truth in every one of Mosco's comics. Whether it is a lonely moth attempting to mistakenly woo a plant that looks like a female of his species or a salamander who secretes a secret weapon to ward off a hungry bird, there's a nugget of wisdom underneath. Even if you don't believe in climate change, there's a lot of eye opening facts about the damage our human race has done and is doing to the environment and endangered species. But to say that a mountain goat is not a goat?! As a goat lover and owner, that's got to not be true. Right? RIGHT???

The art is colorful and super clean. I love the thick 'ink' lines of the finished product. I've always loved thicker inks compared to the whispy pen lines that disappear and break that dominated 1990s comicdom. Animal lovers and naturalists will love this book. But don't be fooled into thinking that just because the artwork looks softer and more family friendly, that kids of all ages can read it. There's some really big words and there's some eye opening looks at the sex lives of animals. So maybe don't give this to your aspiring 6-year old zoologist unless you are willing to answer some potentially awkward questions and perhaps provide a dictionary or encyclopedia. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.