Overview

A lively and revelatory journey through the evolution of caretaking on Earth, from animal parents to modern-day humans, making the case that caring for children and each other made us who we are Poison frog fathers carry tadpoles on their backs. Killer whale grandmothers hunt to feed their adult sons. Tropical birds incubate their friends' eggs. Spider moms let their hatchlings eat them alive. Around the world, animals from the exotic to the familiar go to astonishing lengths to keep their young alive. Their biology, brains and behaviors show us what we have in common with other creatures, as well as what's unique about Homo sapiens. With warmth, humor, and occasional run-ins with bodily fluids, science journalist Elizabeth Preston leads a highly accessible tour of cutting-edge research into how and why we and other animals care for young. She discovers that humans evolved to raise our kids in cooperative groups, and that the tools we've inherited for caretaking aren't only for moms or dads—they're the basis for our human society.

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9780593657102

Table of Contents

Reviews

“Reading this book is like sitting at a dinner table with your smartest, funniest friend. Elizabeth Preston’s writing shimmers with wit, charisma, and infectious delight, as she shows how the act of caretaking connects us to the rest of the animal kingdom.” —Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World “This fascinating, compelling, and comforting book convincingly argues that whether we choose to become parents or not, we—as well as many other animals—were born pre-programmed to care for others. At a time when human overpopulation threatens all the earth's species, it's great to know we can harness our inborn genius for love to do more than just churn out more and more baby humans—we can extend that love to care for life in all its glorious forms.” —Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of What the Chicken Knows “Elizabeth Preston is an engaging, brilliant, often hilarious guide to the WTF world of non-human parenting. This book is astonishing—for the breadth of Preston's research and the eye-opening, jaw-dropping things it uncovers: dads who incubate their young in their throats and burp them out. Babies that survive by peeling and eating their mother's skin. Gender-changing fish! Lactating male bats! The message is clear: there is no one way to be a parent. A must read for mothers (and fathers) and everyone who has one.” —Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Replaceable You “Leave your anthropocentric illusions behind and join science writer Elizabeth Preston in her disarming practice of identifying with other parents, whether fish, fowl, insect or mammal. In return, you will be mightily entertained, and also likely to come away sharing Preston’s conviction that acts of caring by fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and caretakers of every ilk laid the groundwork for the evolution of our own peculiarly social and cooperative species, Homo sapiens.” —Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature and Father Time “Lively and often humorous ...An informative and entertaining inquiry into animal parents.” —Kirkus Reviews “Preston’s warm and humorous debut book delightfully weaves together stories of parenthood successes and challenges across the world and has a place in any science or parenting collection.” —Library Journal

“Elizabeth Preston is an engaging, brilliant, often hilarious guide to the WTF world of non-human parenting. This book is astonishing—for the breadth of Preston's research and the eye-opening, jaw-dropping things it uncovers: dads who incubate their young in their throats and burp them out. Babies that survive by peeling and eating their mother's skin. Gender-changing fish! Lactating male bats! The message is clear: there is no one way to be a parent. A must read for mothers (and fathers) and everyone who has one.” —Mary Roach, the New York Times bestselling author of Replaceable You “Leave your anthropocentric illusions behind and join science writer Elizabeth Preston in her disarming practice of identifying with other parents, whether fish, fowl, insect or mammal. In return, you will be mightily entertained, and also likely to come away sharing Preston’s conviction that acts of caring by fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and caretakers of every ilk laid the groundwork for the evolution of our own peculiarly social and cooperative species, Homo sapiens.” —Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature and Father Time

“This fascinating, compelling, and comforting book convincingly argues that whether we choose to become parents or not, we—as well as many other animals—were born pre-programmed to care for others. At a time when human overpopulation threatens all the earth's species, it's great to know we can harness our the inborn genius for love to do more than just churn out more and more baby humans—we can extend that love to care for life in all its glorious forms.” —Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of What the Chicken Knows “Elizabeth Preston is an engaging, brilliant, often hilarious guide to the WTF world of non-human parenting. This book is astonishing—for the breadth of Preston's research and the eye-opening, jaw-dropping things it uncovers: dads who incubate their young in their throats and burp them out. Babies that survive by peeling and eating their mother's skin. Gender-changing fish! Lactating male bats! The message is clear: there is no one way to be a parent. A must read for mothers (and fathers) and everyone who has one.” —Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Replaceable You “Leave your anthropocentric illusions behind and join science writer Elizabeth Preston in her disarming practice of identifying with other parents, whether fish, fowl, insect or mammal. In return, you will be mightily entertained, and also likely to come away sharing Preston’s conviction that acts of caring by fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and caretakers of every ilk laid the groundwork for the evolution of our own peculiarly social and cooperative species, Homo sapiens.” —Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature and Father Time

Author Information

Elizabeth Preston is a science journalist who contributes regularly to The New York Times and has written for Science, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Orion, Slate, Audubon, Discover, National Geographic, and others. She is a winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award. Preston is also a humor writer whose work has appeared in outlets such as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Parents, and Real Simple, and was the editor of Muse, a magazine about science and ideas for kids. She lives in Massachusetts.

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