Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/01/2025 *Starred Review* Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Yong brings his acclaimed best-seller to young readers. With a focus on sensory biology, the vibrantly illustrated narrative opens with the zoology concept of umwelt, the “sensory bubble” or surroundings an animal can sense or experience. In the author’s adept, conversational style, the topic becomes accessible and enjoyable. Relating his own interactions with the work of scientists and researchers from around the world, Yong not only explains how animal senses work but also how their senses are tied to their survival needs. The breadth of animals and their anatomy and abilities—from bees that view the nectar centers of flowers through ultraviolet light patterns to catfish with taste buds spread all over their scale-free skin—is impressive. Yong also expands the notion of senses to consider how animals perceive pain, temperature, contact and flow, surface vibrations, echoes, and electric and magnetic fields. The chapter on pain is particularly notable for its attention to ethics in pain research. Brief, intermittent field studies from Yong’s own travels, such as studying how a manatee’s whiskers help it sense the flow of water around it, add more details to each section. Concluding chapters on how senses work together and how human interaction threatens animals’ sensory abilities further encourage readers to think about senses and animals in new ways. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.