Review of the Day: The Black Mambas by Kelly Crull

By Kelly Crull
Millbrook (an imprint of Lerner)
$19.99
ISBN: 979-8-7656-2725-9
Ages 4-9
On shelves now

There comes a point in every child’s life when they realize that not only do their parents/guardians not know everything, they not even be all that cool. I mean, parents are inherently uncool, but we get a bit of a grace period before our offspring figure it out for themselves. Now this realization can hit at a variety of different ages. I’ve known kids as young as six come to grips with this information and deal with it accordingly. Other kids are well into their teen when the cruel truth emerges. To my fellow parents, I have… not a solution exactly but a Band-aid to slap over the situation. You’re not cool to your kids anymore? Why not introduce them to someone who is? You might not be able to siphon of any of their residual awesomeness, but it never hurts to try. That’s why I propose that parents in every English-speaking country find the nearest copy of The Black Mambas by Kelly Crull and have it in hand for that inevitable day when their coolness quotient drops below zero. Because the fact of the matter is that the women in this book aren’t just cool. They’re friggin’ real life superheroes, with names like “Lerato”, “Loveness”, “Qolile” and “Goodness”, and “Remember”. Trust me, you’ve never been cooler than when you’ve read this book to a kid.

“We are the Black Mambas! We are the first women park rangers in South African and the first women-led anti-poaching unit in the world.” So begins a book that explains every possible aspect of these women who work the Olifants West Nature Reserve near their homes. As Supervisor Leitah points out, “I grew up in a village near the reserve, and I had never seen an elephant, only the picture of one printed on our money.” In their current job they teach students about the animals they protect. Poachers? They’re just men trying to support their families, but if they’re successful then those animals disappear from the world. As such, we follow the women as they perform their workouts, recite their Code of Honor, practice survival skills, use maps, and patrol for signs of poachers. The holes in the fences, litter, and footprints are covered, as well as different kinds of animal tracks, and a photograph in which four snares are hidden (good luck finding them yourself). Upbeat, fun, and remarkably designed, watch out. Your kids may come away from this book yearning to be anti-poachers themselves.

Books written for kids have to, by design, simplify complex situations. As such, I felt enormously relieved when I came to a portion of the book discussing the poachers and why they do what they do. The official text explains what the poachers do (“They take parts of the animals with them to sell or eat”) while also noting their justifications (“They believe poaching is the best way to provide for their families”). This is corroborated by the Mambas as well. Vongani, for example, is quoted as saying, “Poachers are people like you and me. They are trying to feed their families. Most of them do not understand that if they kill all the animals, they will be gone forever.” That doesn’t mean you don’t also get to see cool images, like what the Mambas found a bushmeat kitchen, or information on how they find tracks and snares. Two things can be true at the same time.

I could probably wax eloquent on any number of aspects of this book and its success, but I want to zero in on three in particular: The succinct writing, the photography, and the design. First off, the writing. I was impressed when I saw how the text was surprisingly restrained considering what, I am sure, must have been a veritable tidal wave of information. Kelly Crull mentions that creating this book took a good five years, yet he was somehow able to reduce everything on these pages to their most essential parts. And, most important of all, he brings to bear this incredible balance of factual accuracy and kid-interest. THAT, my friends, is the sweet spot of children’s informational texts. Only the best nonfiction authors of books for children can both understand this and utilize it. It means that you know, deep in your heart, that the truth of a story is far more interesting than anything you could make up. As such, this book doesn’t have any fake dialogue or probing sections into the “thoughts” of the Mambas. It relies on facts, and comes out stronger as a result. It is, in short, a template for other nonfiction books to follow.

Additionally, the photography is a HUGE reason why this book works as well as it does. First off, someone (could have been Kelly or it could have been someone on his Millbrook team) had the incredibly good idea to put individual photographs of twenty of the rangers on the front endpapers of this story, so that even before you start reading the book you’re seeing these women in camo, clearly enjoying their jobs, with their names neatly printed below their photos. It’s so smart! Like meeting the cast, before plunging into their heroic deeds. After that, photographs dot every single page. Sometimes there are multiple photographs on a page all together. Who is this intrepid photographer on the scene at every juncture? Yeah. That would be Kelly Crull. So, to sum up, he’s writing this book with the right focus in mind (it’s Mamba focused, babies) AND his photography centers them every step of the way. Glorious.

And can I give a shout out to the design of this book as well? I read a lot of nonfiction picture books for kids, let me tell you, and design is a critical component of the process. It does not take a lot to make even the most fascinating subject look dull as dishwater on the page if you don’t have someone taking the design of the book in hand. As I mentioned before, the text isn’t overwhelming, but that’s just part of it. The book is constantly moving the text around the pages, changing the font color to match the pages. Small quotes from various Mambas appear in their own little colorful splotches, while text inserts break up the flow. Add in the photography and the fact that there are constant inserts, photographs of kids, text boxes, queries, labeled pages, and selections where’s there’s almost nothing but the black of the night and the text on the page… and you have yourself a WELL designed book.

Is that all I have to say in favor of this book? Of course not. Heck, I didn’t even dip more than a toe into its backmatter. I could probably write a 2,000 word essay on the Author’s Note alone, if called upon to do so (name your price). But part of reviewing books is knowing when you’ve made your point, and I think I’ve been fairly clear from the get-go. This book? It’s a wonder. A joy. A small pinpoint of light in the darkness that is 2025. If you are in need of something that takes your faith in humanity and gives it a jolt to the gills, that would be this title. Kids these days? They literally have no idea how lucky they are to have books this good.

On shelves now.

Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2025, Review 2025, Reviews