The Snail with the Right Heart

In a paean to the value of individual differences that is presented on a cosmic scale, Brain Pickings founder Popova (Figuring, for adults) relates the real-life story of Jeremy, a rare garden snail found in 2015 by a retired London scientist, whose shell spiraled to the left, signifying reversed internal anatomy—including a heart positioned on the right. Because of this, Jeremy, a hermaphrodite like all garden snails, required a similarly rare mate to procreate. Against a backdrop of biology, history, and genetics, Popova calls attention to differences of ability and the problem of the gender binary. In doing so, she elegantly underscores the desirability of genetic and other kinds of diversity, which is “always lovelier than sameness” and makes communities “stronger and better able to adapt to change.” The book succeeds more as allegory than as informational text, with passages that bounce between metaphorical and scientific descriptions of gastropod reproduction and genetics. Ping Zhu’s (The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor) art, however, turns a book about a humble snail into a riot of vibrant color, making for a celebration of the “strange and lovely little snail with a left-coiling shell and a right heart” that is shot through with a strange loveliness of its very own. Ages 7–12. [em](Feb.) [/em]