Review Detail

One Long Line does a nice job of capturing the curiosity that Jean-Henri Fabre and Terrence Fitzgerald had for caterpillars and how that translated into being a scientist. The book is told in a conversational tone that brings to life these scientists from the past and the unassuming life of pine processionary caterpillars. The book emphasizes that science and research begin with curiosity and then figuring out a way to test and observe to see what you discover. It also shows how answering one question leads to more questions. I like that the subject of the caterpillar isn’t one most of us have stopped and thought about in depth so to learn that you can spend years finding out about one tiny creature expands the idea of possibility. I thought it was an important point to make that Jean-Henri made respectable gains in knowledge and wrote books that were well-received. However, when Terrance revisited the experiments some of the information was faulty and was changed as his understanding grew. This shows the natural process that repeated experiments and revisiting ideas once knowledge and instruments have evolved can lead to changes in scientific knowledge. The accompanying illustrations were okay in conveying information but they were all in light green and the text was story-like to the point that the illustrations alone weren’t that beneficial in adding information or enhancing attention. The text does give us a trigger warning about some of Terrence’s experiments that led to the deaths of caterpillars to further his knowledge. Overall, this book was far more interesting than expected and does a fantastic job of making science seem natural and attainable to all who are curious.