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Popova, Maria

The Snail with the Right Heart: A True Story

56 pp. | Enchanted Lion | February, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-59270-349-4 $18.95
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Ping Zhu. A snail possessing a rare left-spiraling shell is found by scientists and named Jeremy, even though it is not male but a hermaphrodite, like all snails. Jeremy not only has a "reversed" shell but its entire anatomy is flipped. This means Jeremy cannot mate with the overwhelming majority of snails because its reproductive parts won't line up with theirs. Popova skillfully employs metaphor to connect Jeremy's story to the underlying science of evolution, as in presenting the explanation of why snails, who can reproduce on their own, prefer to seek a mate: "because diversity is always lovelier than sameness, and because it makes communities stronger and better able to adapt to change." When scientists put out a call to the public to assist Jeremy in finding a partner with the "right" heart--a clever dual meaning--the search for sinistral snails turns up two, eventually allowing Jeremy to mate. Zhu's illustrations, filled with swirling expanses of color, brilliantly portray the concept of a recessive gene as a tiny but persistent snail silhouette inches across the pages and through geologic time.
Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

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