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The Snail with the Right Heart: A True Story
★ 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.
★ 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.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2021
About the author
Maria Popova
27 books1,472 followersMaria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library of Congress permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials. She hosts The Universe in Verse—an annual charitable celebration of science through poetry—at the interdisciplinary cultural center Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
December 14, 2022
Maria Popova is the amazing creator of Brainpickings, that everyone should follow. I have read her other books, and liked them, but his is her first picture book, illustrated by Ping Zhu, about the discovery of a snail whose shell revolves left instead of right, a rarity, which leads Popova to reflect on the importance of difference and diversity in nature, and human nature. So it's on the one hand a cool scientific book and on the other hand a philosophical book.
It's only for older readers, I think, though parents could help explain the importance of the science to any kids. I think there are too many words for a picture book. I think almost all picture books are about tolerating differences. I didn't quite engage with the watercolor artwork, which on the one hand was breezy, with lots of reflective space; on the other hand, vaguely purposed, to me. I like the story, but I'm just pointing out what were for me shortcomings. I'd say 3/6, rounded up
PS So this is my second snail book in a week?! What's up with that? What's the scientific significance of that? Synchronicity? So maybe I should go out and buy some snails and raise them as pets (as Patricia Highsmith did)? Or go to a nice French restaurant and eat some right-revolving escargot?
It's only for older readers, I think, though parents could help explain the importance of the science to any kids. I think there are too many words for a picture book. I think almost all picture books are about tolerating differences. I didn't quite engage with the watercolor artwork, which on the one hand was breezy, with lots of reflective space; on the other hand, vaguely purposed, to me. I like the story, but I'm just pointing out what were for me shortcomings. I'd say 3/6, rounded up
PS So this is my second snail book in a week?! What's up with that? What's the scientific significance of that? Synchronicity? So maybe I should go out and buy some snails and raise them as pets (as Patricia Highsmith did)? Or go to a nice French restaurant and eat some right-revolving escargot?
March 19, 2021
In what area of your life do you consider yourself “conservative”? Are there places in this great green world where you do not budge an inch? Where you could never ever be swayed? I ask this because as a reviewer of books intended for children I have to remain conscious at all times that every product I consider has had to squeeze itself through my own particular lens. And what makes my lens any better than your lens? This sort of question becomes abundantly clear whenever I look at a work of nonfiction. For children’s books, I give almost no quarter. Fake dialogue is my Achilles heel and if I see so much as a hint of it in a book then I recoil like a vampire huffing garlic. As far as I'm concerned, fake dialogue is just the element that suggests greater, wider problems with the total product. So what happens when I come across a book that stirs the fictional and informational elements of a story together in more creative, socially conscious ways? In the core of my being, I want to slot books into clear-cut, neat little categories. To box them up with labels and not have to think about them anymore. Most publishers are happy enough with this arrangement and don’t attempt to question it. Then you get a publisher like Enchanted Lion Books. Or an author like Maria Popova. Smoosh the two together, and you end up with a book as beautiful, in every sense of the word, as The Snail With the Right Heart. Subtitle: A True Story. Not wrong. But not something I can slot away. A book that dares to play with storytelling and science in a wholly different way.
It could have been ignored. Forgotten completely, had a retired scientist not seen its shell. Upon closer inspection the little snail appeared to be backwards. Its shell did not spiral to the right but to the left. And since the scientist had heard snail researcher Dr. Angus Davidson on the radio not long before, he delivered the little specimen. Dubbed Jeremy, Dr. Davidson set about finding the snail a mate with a similar case of situs inversus (a condition in which one’s internal organs are “inverted”). Lo and behold two more such snails were found, but they mated with one another rather than Jeremy. Fortunately, Jeremy was eventually able to have offspring, but none of them reflected what it was that made Jeremy so unique. Nevertheless, someday in the future, perhaps another snail will share those very traits. Long after we’re gone and some of the stars have disappeared from our sky.
This leads us to a very big question surrounding this book: Is it or is it not nonfiction? I mean, we’re living the Golden Age of Backmatter. If I pick up a nonfiction book of any sort, I wanna see some killer resources, websites, and recommended reads at the back. I want additional information about Jeremy that couldn’t make the text because there simply wasn’t room, or it didn’t fit. So why wasn’t there any? The key to this might lie in an accompanying release that was sent to reviewers. There is a line in it that states that this book is merely “Based on a true story”. Indeed, the Publishers Weekly review said that the book “succeeds more as allegory than as informational text, with passages that bounce between metaphorical and scientific descriptions of gastropod reproduction and genetics.” But does poeticism of text automatically negate a book’s factual content? Is it impossible to write beautifully and still be considered informational? One way of determining the book’s content is to take a look at where libraries have been shelving it. A cursory look at nine libraries in my consortium revealed that all but one had placed it in the nonfiction section. And even the sole library that listed it as fiction gave it a call number of 594.3.
To my mind, Popova has managed to do what some of the best nonfiction is capable of accomplishing. She has taken a true story and breathed life into it to make it human. Her writing at the very start says, “Long ago, before half the stars that speckle the sky were born and before the mountains rose reaching for them, a giant ocean covered the Earth.” This sentence is a warning of sorts. It tells the reader precisely what kind of title they have in their hands. And if the adult gatekeeper reads the line “reaching for them” and something deep inside revolts, this may not be the book for them. Another clue? The cute title. The Snail With the Right Heart. As Shakespeare would say, “There’s a double meaning in that.” For still others they will have difficulty with the anthropomorphizing. “Doctor Angus didn’t want Jeremy to be lonesome.” These were the parts that I personally had the most difficulty with. I’m not sure it was necessary to add that component to the storytelling. A scientist can be both affectionate and professional without having to base their experiments on a personal connection, after all.
The best way to understand this book is to understand Ms. Popova’s connection to the source material. On her site Brain Pickings she credits two inspirations. The first, is The Little Prince which, she says, “I reread once a year every year for basic soul-maintenance”. This explains a great deal. Like The Little Prince this book aims outside its own borders. Unlike it, it still is restricted to the confines of nonfiction. The second influence is “a beloved young human in my own life, who is living with the same rare and wondrous variation of body as the real-life mollusk protagonist.” Indeed, Popova has vowed to, “donate all my author’s proceeds from the book to the Children’s Heart Foundation, whose quarter-century devotion to funding research and scientific collaborations is shedding light on congenital heart conditions to help young humans with unusual hearts live longer, wider lives.” Once I learned these details, the parts of the book that hadn’t quite coalesced together before came together at last.
Curiously, the ending of the book reminded me, in a lot of ways, of Gene Luen Yang’s Dragon Hoops. That book too is a nonfiction story but written within a storytelling framework. Yang, who puts himself directly into the narrative, frets throughout the book that if the sports team that he’s following doesn’t win the championship they’re aiming for, it might ruin this book that he is writing. Similarly, in Snail Popova builds up the narrative to a point where you may begin to believe that the ultimate goal here would be if Jeremy were to produce another situs inversus offspring. Instead, while it is capable of reproducing with another, that never happens. One of my co-workers actually was not a huge fan of this book because they, “found Jeremy’s story depressing--if they were trying to inspire me they didn’t succeed”. I might have felt the same if Jeremy hadn’t actually sired some offspring eventually. Instead, I think I might call this story bittersweet more than anything else. If it were strictly science-based we might get some poignant words about how the experiments you run don’t always go according to plan. Instead, the focus remains squarely on Jeremy’s short life and the hope that someday, perhaps far in the future (maybe when some of the stars that speckle the sky are gone) there might be another snail just like Jeremy. And there’s a poetry to that thought.
Ping Zhu, as it happens, created the cover art for Popova’s previous (and adult) book for Enchanted Lion Press, A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader. Ping has done a few books for children and in this book, she was given a kind of leniency that I suspect other artists would envy. The art appears to be watercolors, and the colors just pop. While most garden variety snails are not usually considered the most colorful of critters, Ping finds broad sweeps of color in other places. From the metaphorical parade of evolution to the snail sex page (oh yeah, it’s there, "love darts" and all) to the final image of a sun setting and the sky a red/orange/yellow/blue/purple/pink throb of tones, this is a treat to the eye. My favorite part is the book’s most blatant indulgence. In a section discussing genes, recessive and otherwise, the page inexplicably lifts out of the book, in a kind of half-gatefold, to reveal what is essentially three pages of vegetation and the occasional creepy crawly. It doesn’t need to be there and yet the book is stronger for its inclusion. I just love it. I wish more children’s books could surprise us with unnecessary beauty once in a while.
In the midst of all that beauty, though, there are things I might have changed. You can indulge in (for lack of a better word) lyrical writing and still have backmatter. That doesn’t hurt anyone and it gives the book a wider audience. The thing that I would have changed even more readily, however, I was the fact that while Jeremy is said quite clearly to be neither male nor female and that “Jeremy is a they”, the book then immediately goes back to calling the snail “he” for the remainder of the text. And in an era were we are seeing too few “theys” in our children’s books, it hurt to so quickly lose that momentary elation I felt. The book, I should say, is a little inconsistent on this point. At the very end it goes back to calling Jeremy “they” but not long before we have sentences that say things like “Jeremy’s heart was also on the right-wrong side, as were all his vital body parts.” So I chalk this up as an copyediting snafu more than anything else. An easy catch that got missed before the final printing.
Clearly I like to spend inordinate amounts of time fretting over what does or does not make a book nonfiction. But you know what? This book is talking about genetics, genes, evolution, and biology in fun, original ways for children. Popova manages to stay within the range of accurate informational fiction while also making her story read as fluidly and beautifully as any work of fantasy. There’s no fake dialogue. She doesn’t (and I cannot stress enough how grateful I am that she doesn’t do this) jump into the mind of the snail to get its perspective (though she does speculate just once). And the art is just stunning and strange. Wordless gatefolds and sunsets and take a peek under the book’s jacket sometime to see what’s hidden there. Honestly, I can see how this book could upset people who like their science a bit more rigorous than what you’ll find here, but I like it, flaws and all. It’s a book that takes risks, makes mistakes, and comes out memorable in the end. The right snail with the right heart in the right book for the right reader.
For ages 6-10
It could have been ignored. Forgotten completely, had a retired scientist not seen its shell. Upon closer inspection the little snail appeared to be backwards. Its shell did not spiral to the right but to the left. And since the scientist had heard snail researcher Dr. Angus Davidson on the radio not long before, he delivered the little specimen. Dubbed Jeremy, Dr. Davidson set about finding the snail a mate with a similar case of situs inversus (a condition in which one’s internal organs are “inverted”). Lo and behold two more such snails were found, but they mated with one another rather than Jeremy. Fortunately, Jeremy was eventually able to have offspring, but none of them reflected what it was that made Jeremy so unique. Nevertheless, someday in the future, perhaps another snail will share those very traits. Long after we’re gone and some of the stars have disappeared from our sky.
This leads us to a very big question surrounding this book: Is it or is it not nonfiction? I mean, we’re living the Golden Age of Backmatter. If I pick up a nonfiction book of any sort, I wanna see some killer resources, websites, and recommended reads at the back. I want additional information about Jeremy that couldn’t make the text because there simply wasn’t room, or it didn’t fit. So why wasn’t there any? The key to this might lie in an accompanying release that was sent to reviewers. There is a line in it that states that this book is merely “Based on a true story”. Indeed, the Publishers Weekly review said that the book “succeeds more as allegory than as informational text, with passages that bounce between metaphorical and scientific descriptions of gastropod reproduction and genetics.” But does poeticism of text automatically negate a book’s factual content? Is it impossible to write beautifully and still be considered informational? One way of determining the book’s content is to take a look at where libraries have been shelving it. A cursory look at nine libraries in my consortium revealed that all but one had placed it in the nonfiction section. And even the sole library that listed it as fiction gave it a call number of 594.3.
To my mind, Popova has managed to do what some of the best nonfiction is capable of accomplishing. She has taken a true story and breathed life into it to make it human. Her writing at the very start says, “Long ago, before half the stars that speckle the sky were born and before the mountains rose reaching for them, a giant ocean covered the Earth.” This sentence is a warning of sorts. It tells the reader precisely what kind of title they have in their hands. And if the adult gatekeeper reads the line “reaching for them” and something deep inside revolts, this may not be the book for them. Another clue? The cute title. The Snail With the Right Heart. As Shakespeare would say, “There’s a double meaning in that.” For still others they will have difficulty with the anthropomorphizing. “Doctor Angus didn’t want Jeremy to be lonesome.” These were the parts that I personally had the most difficulty with. I’m not sure it was necessary to add that component to the storytelling. A scientist can be both affectionate and professional without having to base their experiments on a personal connection, after all.
The best way to understand this book is to understand Ms. Popova’s connection to the source material. On her site Brain Pickings she credits two inspirations. The first, is The Little Prince which, she says, “I reread once a year every year for basic soul-maintenance”. This explains a great deal. Like The Little Prince this book aims outside its own borders. Unlike it, it still is restricted to the confines of nonfiction. The second influence is “a beloved young human in my own life, who is living with the same rare and wondrous variation of body as the real-life mollusk protagonist.” Indeed, Popova has vowed to, “donate all my author’s proceeds from the book to the Children’s Heart Foundation, whose quarter-century devotion to funding research and scientific collaborations is shedding light on congenital heart conditions to help young humans with unusual hearts live longer, wider lives.” Once I learned these details, the parts of the book that hadn’t quite coalesced together before came together at last.
Curiously, the ending of the book reminded me, in a lot of ways, of Gene Luen Yang’s Dragon Hoops. That book too is a nonfiction story but written within a storytelling framework. Yang, who puts himself directly into the narrative, frets throughout the book that if the sports team that he’s following doesn’t win the championship they’re aiming for, it might ruin this book that he is writing. Similarly, in Snail Popova builds up the narrative to a point where you may begin to believe that the ultimate goal here would be if Jeremy were to produce another situs inversus offspring. Instead, while it is capable of reproducing with another, that never happens. One of my co-workers actually was not a huge fan of this book because they, “found Jeremy’s story depressing--if they were trying to inspire me they didn’t succeed”. I might have felt the same if Jeremy hadn’t actually sired some offspring eventually. Instead, I think I might call this story bittersweet more than anything else. If it were strictly science-based we might get some poignant words about how the experiments you run don’t always go according to plan. Instead, the focus remains squarely on Jeremy’s short life and the hope that someday, perhaps far in the future (maybe when some of the stars that speckle the sky are gone) there might be another snail just like Jeremy. And there’s a poetry to that thought.
Ping Zhu, as it happens, created the cover art for Popova’s previous (and adult) book for Enchanted Lion Press, A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader. Ping has done a few books for children and in this book, she was given a kind of leniency that I suspect other artists would envy. The art appears to be watercolors, and the colors just pop. While most garden variety snails are not usually considered the most colorful of critters, Ping finds broad sweeps of color in other places. From the metaphorical parade of evolution to the snail sex page (oh yeah, it’s there, "love darts" and all) to the final image of a sun setting and the sky a red/orange/yellow/blue/purple/pink throb of tones, this is a treat to the eye. My favorite part is the book’s most blatant indulgence. In a section discussing genes, recessive and otherwise, the page inexplicably lifts out of the book, in a kind of half-gatefold, to reveal what is essentially three pages of vegetation and the occasional creepy crawly. It doesn’t need to be there and yet the book is stronger for its inclusion. I just love it. I wish more children’s books could surprise us with unnecessary beauty once in a while.
In the midst of all that beauty, though, there are things I might have changed. You can indulge in (for lack of a better word) lyrical writing and still have backmatter. That doesn’t hurt anyone and it gives the book a wider audience. The thing that I would have changed even more readily, however, I was the fact that while Jeremy is said quite clearly to be neither male nor female and that “Jeremy is a they”, the book then immediately goes back to calling the snail “he” for the remainder of the text. And in an era were we are seeing too few “theys” in our children’s books, it hurt to so quickly lose that momentary elation I felt. The book, I should say, is a little inconsistent on this point. At the very end it goes back to calling Jeremy “they” but not long before we have sentences that say things like “Jeremy’s heart was also on the right-wrong side, as were all his vital body parts.” So I chalk this up as an copyediting snafu more than anything else. An easy catch that got missed before the final printing.
Clearly I like to spend inordinate amounts of time fretting over what does or does not make a book nonfiction. But you know what? This book is talking about genetics, genes, evolution, and biology in fun, original ways for children. Popova manages to stay within the range of accurate informational fiction while also making her story read as fluidly and beautifully as any work of fantasy. There’s no fake dialogue. She doesn’t (and I cannot stress enough how grateful I am that she doesn’t do this) jump into the mind of the snail to get its perspective (though she does speculate just once). And the art is just stunning and strange. Wordless gatefolds and sunsets and take a peek under the book’s jacket sometime to see what’s hidden there. Honestly, I can see how this book could upset people who like their science a bit more rigorous than what you’ll find here, but I like it, flaws and all. It’s a book that takes risks, makes mistakes, and comes out memorable in the end. The right snail with the right heart in the right book for the right reader.
For ages 6-10
March 25, 2021
I so wish I could be as enthused about Maria Popova's The Snail with the Right Heart: A True Story as so many 5-star raters are. In fact I was eager to read it in part because of all the comments about gender and pronouns. The cover art also appeared quite promising. However, upon reading the book, which at its core is an attempt to explain recessive genes to young readers, I couldn't help but feel that the writing is pretty well muddled, guidance from the editor lax, and the artwork not living up to the promise from the cover.
I frankly thought the effort was derailed from page one. While others, including the Kirkus Review, find the opening few pages about evolutionary concepts from billions of years ago charming, I found them to be confusing without a more immediate connection to snails, which is really just a matter of editing. Reverse the order - introduce a snail (perhaps even Jeremy), then introduce evolution by explaining how it relates to the physiology of the snail. Without a more immediate connection, it seems as though the wrong book is sitting inside the correct dust jacket.
Then there's the attempt to wade into the politically-charged area of gender and pronouns. While a discussion of Jeremy's gender is highly significant given that snails are hermaphrodites and that requires an explanation that a child's mind can wrap around, trying to then apply the singular neutral pronoun of "they/them" to a snail called "Jeremy" is exceedingly messy and is latched onto without any successful attempt to explain further. In this way, the book is a bit dumbed down for the sake of its audience.
Likewise, the author is very choosy about when to get highly scientific and when to be vague and cutesy. Having referenced the term hermaphrodite and successfully navigated the briefest trip around that concept, Ms. Popova then introduces Latin to the young reader by referencing the term "situs inversus" just to be able to continue to use the phrase over and over again, rather than the exceedingly lengthy, commonplace English meaning, "inverted internal organs". Why use three words when two will suffice, especially when reaching for a Siebert Prize? So when one uses words like hermaphrodite and "situs inversus", why then shy away from equally complicated subjects for children like reproduction and genitalia and revert to dumbing it down with substitutions like "baby-making parts" and "love dart"? While I understand that even the scientific community calls gypsobelum "love darts", it nonetheless felt like a cop out given the use of other language in the book.
I appreciate that Jeremy was an actual snail who lived roughly 2015-2017, and that a public appeal was launched to help find a mate for them so that numerous additional offspring with recessive genes could be created for scientific study. I truly love Jeremy's story and the scientific concepts that their life illuminates on a very basic level for children to grasp. For me, however, unlike the Kirkus review that enthuses this is "a story as charmingly mesmerizing as a silvery snail’s trail on a summer morning" that silvery trail turns out to be nothing more than mucus or to dumb it down yet further, slime.
I frankly thought the effort was derailed from page one. While others, including the Kirkus Review, find the opening few pages about evolutionary concepts from billions of years ago charming, I found them to be confusing without a more immediate connection to snails, which is really just a matter of editing. Reverse the order - introduce a snail (perhaps even Jeremy), then introduce evolution by explaining how it relates to the physiology of the snail. Without a more immediate connection, it seems as though the wrong book is sitting inside the correct dust jacket.
Then there's the attempt to wade into the politically-charged area of gender and pronouns. While a discussion of Jeremy's gender is highly significant given that snails are hermaphrodites and that requires an explanation that a child's mind can wrap around, trying to then apply the singular neutral pronoun of "they/them" to a snail called "Jeremy" is exceedingly messy and is latched onto without any successful attempt to explain further. In this way, the book is a bit dumbed down for the sake of its audience.
Likewise, the author is very choosy about when to get highly scientific and when to be vague and cutesy. Having referenced the term hermaphrodite and successfully navigated the briefest trip around that concept, Ms. Popova then introduces Latin to the young reader by referencing the term "situs inversus" just to be able to continue to use the phrase over and over again, rather than the exceedingly lengthy, commonplace English meaning, "inverted internal organs". Why use three words when two will suffice, especially when reaching for a Siebert Prize? So when one uses words like hermaphrodite and "situs inversus", why then shy away from equally complicated subjects for children like reproduction and genitalia and revert to dumbing it down with substitutions like "baby-making parts" and "love dart"? While I understand that even the scientific community calls gypsobelum "love darts", it nonetheless felt like a cop out given the use of other language in the book.
I appreciate that Jeremy was an actual snail who lived roughly 2015-2017, and that a public appeal was launched to help find a mate for them so that numerous additional offspring with recessive genes could be created for scientific study. I truly love Jeremy's story and the scientific concepts that their life illuminates on a very basic level for children to grasp. For me, however, unlike the Kirkus review that enthuses this is "a story as charmingly mesmerizing as a silvery snail’s trail on a summer morning" that silvery trail turns out to be nothing more than mucus or to dumb it down yet further, slime.
January 1, 2022
An absolutely outstanding true story of a genetically-mutated snail with a shell that curls left, and a heart on the right side. I absolutely loved this scientific romp, the illustrations are phenomenal.
April 6, 2021
3.5 stars
May 24, 2021
An absolutely unique story based on real events from a popular blogger about a scientific discovery of a snail "with a different swirl." (That quote is from me since I couldn't recall how they described it on the book.) It manages to be a rumination on life and a love story. It starts out with a small discovery that casts a wide net. It's a book to be experienced.
February 23, 2021
I just wanted to express how much I appreciated this new picture book by Maria Popova, The Snail with the Right Heart. It was perfect to share with my differently-wired son. We liked that the snail's heart was different, like my son's was different, and liked that it went in depth about genetic mutations (hard to find in a picture book.) It does approach topics of reproduction and gender identity within a scientific framework, so pre-read if you're nervous about that, but I think it handles those topics with compassion and wisdom.
November 13, 2022
Lovely true children's story about a snail who shell and entire body is the inverse of how most snails bodies are organized. Due to the nature of how snails reproduce, this physical difference causes the snail to be unable to reproduce with anyone until another "reverse" snail is found. This story can be read as straight forward as a "lonely" snail story. It can also be a nice introduction to evolution, genetics and mutation. Or if the reader chooses to read more into it, it can be a celebration of one's uniqueness, and the acceptance of that uniqueness. The more romantically inclined may wish to also go with the "there's someone out there for everyone."
Fun read, regardless of your age.
Fun read, regardless of your age.
May 18, 2021
I welcome this whimsical true story, The Snail With The Right Heart, particularly in this age. Maria Popova's writing has long appealed to me, especially in Brain Pickings.
"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."
For me, a 68 year old with a family proud of its diverse members, the children's book format is ideal to stimulate thought and discussion as we all try to get on the same page with current abstract concepts.
"One day, something strange happened in the giant ocean - a change so mysterious that it was given a special name: mutation."
As we are being enlightened to the truth about human gender diversity, many of us are adapting to appropriate and scientific terminology, while being careful to remove offensive terms. (I hasten to add human gender doesn't come up specifically in The Snail With The Right Heart.) While 'hermaphrodite' is one such offensive term when applied to humans, it is correctly used in the book, and provides an opportunity to understand the term.
..."every snail has a body that is both male and female. Such a wondrous body is called a 'hermaphrodite'."
For further information I referred to The Organization Intersex International (OII):
"'Hermaphrodite' properly refers to animals that have a functioning set of both male and female organs so that they may reproduce with or without a mate... There are no human hermaphrodites known to science."
(Not yet.)
"Natural variation and scientific discoveries may change this and our consideration of human rights might need to be revised in that event."
The work of illustrator Ping Zhu is beautiful and dynamic, while she describes herself as "a small sentient speck in the Universe."
I highly recommend this stimulating book, to be enjoyed by individuals or as a family.
"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."
For me, a 68 year old with a family proud of its diverse members, the children's book format is ideal to stimulate thought and discussion as we all try to get on the same page with current abstract concepts.
"One day, something strange happened in the giant ocean - a change so mysterious that it was given a special name: mutation."
As we are being enlightened to the truth about human gender diversity, many of us are adapting to appropriate and scientific terminology, while being careful to remove offensive terms. (I hasten to add human gender doesn't come up specifically in The Snail With The Right Heart.) While 'hermaphrodite' is one such offensive term when applied to humans, it is correctly used in the book, and provides an opportunity to understand the term.
..."every snail has a body that is both male and female. Such a wondrous body is called a 'hermaphrodite'."
For further information I referred to The Organization Intersex International (OII):
"'Hermaphrodite' properly refers to animals that have a functioning set of both male and female organs so that they may reproduce with or without a mate... There are no human hermaphrodites known to science."
(Not yet.)
"Natural variation and scientific discoveries may change this and our consideration of human rights might need to be revised in that event."
The work of illustrator Ping Zhu is beautiful and dynamic, while she describes herself as "a small sentient speck in the Universe."
I highly recommend this stimulating book, to be enjoyed by individuals or as a family.
January 11, 2023
How gorgeous is that cover?
I enjoyed the big, bold, saturated use of color in many of the illustrations.
The text is wordy, lyrical-yet-scientific, requiring a reader to stop, slow down and take in and absorb information. I probably didn't give it the time it required, and didn't even give it a second read. (I usually read picture books multiple times before sending them back through the book return chute.)
I found myself unsure of the audience here, what with all of the content about snail mating. I feel it's great for science lovers and young adults. Biology students might have a blast with it! But young children? I'm not sure.
The love life of Jeremy the snail seems to have drawn quite a following in his lifetime. Scientifically interesting, non-binary, perhaps a source of entertainment for some adults, as seen here:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...
Again, though, I'm not sure it's for children.
I enjoyed the big, bold, saturated use of color in many of the illustrations.
The text is wordy, lyrical-yet-scientific, requiring a reader to stop, slow down and take in and absorb information. I probably didn't give it the time it required, and didn't even give it a second read. (I usually read picture books multiple times before sending them back through the book return chute.)
I found myself unsure of the audience here, what with all of the content about snail mating. I feel it's great for science lovers and young adults. Biology students might have a blast with it! But young children? I'm not sure.
The love life of Jeremy the snail seems to have drawn quite a following in his lifetime. Scientifically interesting, non-binary, perhaps a source of entertainment for some adults, as seen here:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...
Again, though, I'm not sure it's for children.
Read
July 16, 2023Just read the most fascinating review on this book. I read it with my youngest, who just turned 13, and our takeaway was how gene expression is what makes us unique. We’re all built of the same building blocks (some say stardust), but we are endlessly individual and unique despite it. We are not just our parents (or their parents, or their parents) smooshed together.
March 27, 2023
Big pages with big colorful illustrations.
Learn about a snail named Jeremy born with situs invertus, a rare genetic mutation that switches the organs to the oposite side. The book esplains how slugs have both male and female parts and why they still make babies by two.
Educational, sweet story
Learn about a snail named Jeremy born with situs invertus, a rare genetic mutation that switches the organs to the oposite side. The book esplains how slugs have both male and female parts and why they still make babies by two.
Educational, sweet story
February 8, 2021
What an enchanting tale, a true story of a snail whose shell spiraled left instead of right. So beautifully written and illustrated!
June 10, 2021
An ambitious project, indeed!
Challenges include addressing so many concepts in one sitting and oversized artwork that might work better reading to a group than personal or lap reading.
The transitions from scientific writing to emotional writing may be difficult for some to navigate, while it is appreciated by others.
Certainly a book worth talking about!
Challenges include addressing so many concepts in one sitting and oversized artwork that might work better reading to a group than personal or lap reading.
The transitions from scientific writing to emotional writing may be difficult for some to navigate, while it is appreciated by others.
Certainly a book worth talking about!
February 3, 2021
I heartily recommend this children's picture book to: children too young to read, lovers of illustration, gardeners, children with a genetic ailment, parents of children with a medical challenge, scientists, elementary school teachers, young children interested in bugs, lovers of poetic language used in places other than poetry, budding biologists, adults in need of a jolt of wonder, anyone in charge of religious training for small children. And others.
February 5, 2021
Absolutely magical book about a true story - the discovery of a snail whose shell revolves left instead of right, this book is also a meditation on genes and life and the wonder of being a “they”. More reads! This is definitely list.
February 3, 2021
Ok, I pre-ordered and was waiting impatiently for the book. Beautiful art and heartwarming story. Worth the wait. Love Maria Popova’s characteristic metaphors and melding of science and poetry. Deducting one star in the hope that someday, her writing celebrates brevity and shines even brighter.
April 3, 2021
Lovely retelling of a scientific rarity, with philosophy thrown in for good measure.
January 17, 2023
ένα βιβλίο με γλυκιά αίσθηση: η εικονογράφηση έχει ένα καθησυχαστικό φως και το κείμενο σε εκπλήσσει ευχάριστα: με τον τρόπο που σε εκπλήσσει η ύπαρξη ενός «ανάποδου» σαλιγκαριού, αλλά κυρίως το ενδιαφέρον του κόσμου για αυτό το σαλιγκάρι – είναι το βλέμμα που στρέφεται στις λεπτομέρειες
και είναι και λιγάκι κουίρ
🐌
https://dimartblog.com/2023/01/17/the...
και είναι και λιγάκι κουίρ
🐌
https://dimartblog.com/2023/01/17/the...
May 4, 2021
Amazing stories and incredible discoveries can hide in the smallest and most ordinary-seeming packages. We begin with a poetic description of the ancient origin of snails: a brave early vanguard from the sea that carried their homes on their backs. Evolution continues and when a retired scientist notices a most unusual snail- one whose shell spirals left instead of right, indicating all of his systems-including his bi-lateral hermaphrodite reproductive system - are reversed- a worldwide hunt begins for an equally unusual mate. Fascinating science delivered in a thought-provoking and memorable story.
An awesome resource for an inquisitive, science-inclined child.
An awesome resource for an inquisitive, science-inclined child.
March 18, 2021
This might be nonfiction, but the illustrations and tone are rather "cosmic" in nature. Hippies will love this. Seriously. I felt like I was listening to a Blue Oyster Cult record while reading this... Maybe Blue Snail Cult? :-\
June 17, 2021
Gender/pronouns
Evolution
Baby making parts
Hermaphrodite
Gene-seeds
Love-dart
"Lefty and Tomeu puzzle-pieced with each other instead, making babies together."
Why so much in one story? Overkill.
Evolution
Baby making parts
Hermaphrodite
Gene-seeds
Love-dart
"Lefty and Tomeu puzzle-pieced with each other instead, making babies together."
Why so much in one story? Overkill.
March 4, 2021
"The Snail with the Right Heart" is a true story. The snail's name is Jeremy and he was different from other snails because his shell spiraled to the left instead of the right and all of his organs were reversed. This is a recessive trait that very few snails have. Jeremy's heart was on the right side of his body instead of the left. He happened to have been discovered by a retired scientist who had just heard an interview with a snail researcher, Dr. Angus Davidson--an excellent example of synchronicity. The retired scientist sent Jeremy to Dr. Davidson, who began a worldwide attempt to find him a mate who also had a left-spiraling shell. This lushly illustrated book is the sweet story of Jeremy, genetics, evolution, snail love and reproduction and, underlying it all, the miracle of nature. It is a children's book, but those children who do not already know how human babies are made may ask a lot of questions! Snails are both male and female, so they can mate with themselves or with other snails. Jeremy's pronouns are "they" and "them." Popova describes snail sex as like "fitting puzzle pieces together" and sex will from now on be referred to in my own household as "puzzle-piecing."
"The Snail with the Right Heart" is a beautiful, charmingly written book with gorgeous illustrations. Fascinated readers can find out more about Jeremy--he has his own Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_...
"The Snail with the Right Heart" is a beautiful, charmingly written book with gorgeous illustrations. Fascinated readers can find out more about Jeremy--he has his own Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_...
October 29, 2021
I'm not sure if this is a picture book or nonfiction. Or maybe a picture book based on a real story. It is a gentle, poetic story with a narration that invites the reader to learn and consider differences that nature presents. The author even presents pronouns in explaining how snails reproduce.
Few straight lines in the artwork, more gentle swoops and rounded shapes to match the snail and its tale. Endpapers and artwork on the cover (different from the jacket art) have soft colors that bleed into each other. The book opens with dark skies with pinpricks of stars and then lighten until we're on a page with a vast ocean, small red sun rising, and a tiny snail emerging onto land, the lines of the earth and the snail facing to take the reader to a page turn. The snail remains tiny as humans begin walking the earth and gradually we get a closer look as Jeremy, the snail with the inverted shell and organs, is found. You'd think that painting a snail wouldn't allow too much color, but the illustrator paints shades and swishes of other colors into the shells and bodies for the larger images. Who knew snails could have beauty? Blue takes over as the predominant color on a few pages to depict the loneliness of being the only one. The book ends with a different version of the ocean and red sun spread at the beginning -- this time is a colorful sunset sky with a large red sun coloring the water and still a small snail making its way across a curve of land.
Few straight lines in the artwork, more gentle swoops and rounded shapes to match the snail and its tale. Endpapers and artwork on the cover (different from the jacket art) have soft colors that bleed into each other. The book opens with dark skies with pinpricks of stars and then lighten until we're on a page with a vast ocean, small red sun rising, and a tiny snail emerging onto land, the lines of the earth and the snail facing to take the reader to a page turn. The snail remains tiny as humans begin walking the earth and gradually we get a closer look as Jeremy, the snail with the inverted shell and organs, is found. You'd think that painting a snail wouldn't allow too much color, but the illustrator paints shades and swishes of other colors into the shells and bodies for the larger images. Who knew snails could have beauty? Blue takes over as the predominant color on a few pages to depict the loneliness of being the only one. The book ends with a different version of the ocean and red sun spread at the beginning -- this time is a colorful sunset sky with a large red sun coloring the water and still a small snail making its way across a curve of land.
November 17, 2021
Maria Popova and Ping Zhu celebrate the significance of one small snail with a swirl that goes left and a heart on the right side of its body. The story begins, “Long ago, before half the stars that speckle the sky were born…”, and moves quickly – “which in cosmic time means millions and millions of years”, to an English Garden. In this garden a series of fortunate scientific events lead to the discovery of a lefty snail in a compost heap. The scientific vocabulary used to explain how this wonderous creature came to be (mutation, recessive genes, hermaphrodite, and situs inversus or mirror-image) is explained in simple terms reinforced with metaphors, and embedded in the familiar format of a story. The illustrations encourage exploration, look closely for a tiny black silhouette of a snail, possibly Lefty’s ancestor, crawling out of a vast ocean for the first time, walking on land beside the first prehistoric humans, and hiding in a garden. Touch the spirals of two oversized snails on a two-page spread, face to face, one left and one right. Pull out the three-panel spread to display huge flowers in bloom surrounded by dormant seeds floating in the breeze, recessive genes, waiting to bloom “in generations of gardens down the line.” A book of wonder which requires extra time for studying illustrations and answering lots of questions…be prepared to wander.
March 31, 2021
I wanted to love this, because I love Maria Popova and Brain Pickings and especially her lists of picture books.
But I didn't. The art was too simplistic for me. The writing was good, but kind of all over the place. It's a great marvel that could have been a great story, but it wasn't told very well. I don't think kids will get into it. Maybe the ones who are really into science will.
The more I think about it, I think the art was what bothered me. It didn't tell a story. The illustrations felt very static. There were no characters. Even the snails were hard to tell apart. And without characters, there's no identification or empathy. But then this is non-fiction..... Maybe that's the problem: it can't decide if it's a story or a fact book. And I think it will languish in the library because of that. Our library has catalogued it in non-fiction with snails. Kids looking for books for reports can't use it, and no one will find it browsing. So where does it belong? Perhaps, like Jeremy, this book is unique and doesn't have a place.
But I didn't. The art was too simplistic for me. The writing was good, but kind of all over the place. It's a great marvel that could have been a great story, but it wasn't told very well. I don't think kids will get into it. Maybe the ones who are really into science will.
The more I think about it, I think the art was what bothered me. It didn't tell a story. The illustrations felt very static. There were no characters. Even the snails were hard to tell apart. And without characters, there's no identification or empathy. But then this is non-fiction..... Maybe that's the problem: it can't decide if it's a story or a fact book. And I think it will languish in the library because of that. Our library has catalogued it in non-fiction with snails. Kids looking for books for reports can't use it, and no one will find it browsing. So where does it belong? Perhaps, like Jeremy, this book is unique and doesn't have a place.
August 1, 2021
I found this book endlessly fascinating. Beginning with the evolution of snails, the reader is set up with context to understand recessive genes. In this case, Jeremy the snail has a mirror image body -- their shell swirls the opposite way of most snails and their heart is on the right side. This unusual physiology means that Jeremy can only mate with another mirror snail. In hopes of studying this same phenomenon in humans, a scientist institutes a search for another mirror image snail. An interesting look at snail biology, the way that studying other creatures can offer windows into the human body, and a casual look at the nonbinary.
One of the more baffling flaws is the misgendering of Jeremy the snail after establishing they are nonbinary. Also irritating is the utter lack of backmatter, additional information, sources, or additional reading. This is clearly based on a true story, and the author clearly made efforts to be knowledgeable about snails, but my need for further context went sorely unsatisfied.
One of the more baffling flaws is the misgendering of Jeremy the snail after establishing they are nonbinary. Also irritating is the utter lack of backmatter, additional information, sources, or additional reading. This is clearly based on a true story, and the author clearly made efforts to be knowledgeable about snails, but my need for further context went sorely unsatisfied.
December 1, 2021
Sara brought this home from public library.
This is definitely the hardcover but it has -3494v ISBN on back cover and title page verso.
Having thought about this a bit on and off since reading it yesterday I decided to downgrade it one star. The book is generally very welcoming of diversity and brings in some fairly tough concepts, such as evolution, genes, very long time spans, hermaphrodism, and situs inversus. Honestly, I am not remotely sure who the audience is for this picture book. While the concepts are presented pretty well for a younger audience, it still all seems above the heads of who this is aimed at as a picture book. I don't know.
Anyway, the main reason I am downgrading this (the audience question being secondary) is when she describes situs inversus she describes it as right (as spatial, not correct) versus wrong sides. Different is not wrong. Might be a small point to many, maybe most, but the message that different is wrong is beyond pernicious in our society and has done untold damage for millennia.
DPL
This is definitely the hardcover but it has -3494v ISBN on back cover and title page verso.
Having thought about this a bit on and off since reading it yesterday I decided to downgrade it one star. The book is generally very welcoming of diversity and brings in some fairly tough concepts, such as evolution, genes, very long time spans, hermaphrodism, and situs inversus. Honestly, I am not remotely sure who the audience is for this picture book. While the concepts are presented pretty well for a younger audience, it still all seems above the heads of who this is aimed at as a picture book. I don't know.
Anyway, the main reason I am downgrading this (the audience question being secondary) is when she describes situs inversus she describes it as right (as spatial, not correct) versus wrong sides. Different is not wrong. Might be a small point to many, maybe most, but the message that different is wrong is beyond pernicious in our society and has done untold damage for millennia.
DPL
April 24, 2021
Okay, honestly, the reviews of this book (and the GR description) make it sound like some emotional tour-de-force that transcends the cosmos and will touch the deepest life-force of us all as it educates us about difference and gender and mutation.
This book is about a wacky snail.
I mean like, the majority of people who might encounter a reverse snail, once it had been explained to them what that is, would probably be like, "ah, neat!" and then move on with their lives, because it's a snail, and recessive genes do all kinds of crazy shit in nature.
So, is the book cute? Yes. The art is kind of pretty. And some of the language used is quite beautiful. But is it deserving of a pile of breathless five-star reviews? Ehhhhh. It's a SNAIL.
This book is about a wacky snail.
I mean like, the majority of people who might encounter a reverse snail, once it had been explained to them what that is, would probably be like, "ah, neat!" and then move on with their lives, because it's a snail, and recessive genes do all kinds of crazy shit in nature.
So, is the book cute? Yes. The art is kind of pretty. And some of the language used is quite beautiful. But is it deserving of a pile of breathless five-star reviews? Ehhhhh. It's a SNAIL.
March 4, 2022
I loved the art and the poetry of this story. The big washes of color show the beginning and ending of time at either end of the story are both simple and complex. But the main story is about a snail that grew inverted (or left) of what normal snails grow (which is right), and scientific efforts to study him and find others like him, just as rare. Because just as rarely, some humans are inverted as well. Given that this is aimed at prepubescent children, I found it fascinating how the author describes snail sex, and genes: "their baby-making parts fit together like puzzle pieces". This slow and gentle story is meant to be read over and over again, and celebrates the wonder and value of the different.
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