Sisters & Brothers: Sibling Relationships in the Animal World (review)

Husband-and-wife team Jenkins and Page offer another look at the animal world, here examining species according to their various sibling relationships. Each spread focuses on a species or two, offering a tabbed notation that describes the gist of this species' sibling arrangements ("Competition," "Living together," "Stepsisters and stepbrothers") and a paragraph that describes the relevant sibling behavior; animals featured range from arachnids and reptiles to birds and mammals. The text is a little choppy and the theme is strained at times; however, this is certainly an idea likely to attract the attention of young readers, themselves intimately familiar with the complexity of growing up with siblings, and there's a clear and useful message of diverse practices in the natural world on family matters. Jenkins' renowned collage illustrations offer tactile portraits of teeming termites and wrinkly naked mole rats, fuzzy-edged bear cubs and crisply assembled armadillos. Add this to the couple's ever-expanding oeuvre of inviting early biology, or slyly slip it into a thematic discussion of siblings. A closing spread of "animal facts" offers thumbnail descriptions of the featured critters' habitat and habits.