Amazing art makes this a browser’s delight, but they should go elsewhere for solid information
An oversized album of 80 common and lesser-known wild animals from three northern-hemisphere continents, identified by common and Latin names.
The draw here is the imagery: gorgeous, geometrically stylized silkscreenlike digital portraits, most filling at least a page. Some pictures stretch across a double-page spread; other animals get two, one frontal close-up and another, more distant image. Often there's a suggestion of appropriate habitat. The American lobster is shown both in its living blue-green and cooked red states. Half the images are accompanied by short paragraphs offering a variety of interesting facts. Calleja’s translation of the German text of this British import is sometimes awkward and in one case mistaken: the “King Duck” is properly a king eider. English spelling (“tonnes”) and metric measurements are used throughout. And, as can happen when an illustrator writes his natural-history text, there are occasional errors. The Kodiak bear was not the inspiration for teddy bears; that was the smaller Louisiana bear. The text repeats the unfortunate and no-longer-used name “oldsquaw” for the long-tailed duck and attributes the raccoon’s name generally to “Native Americans” though it comes from a specific Algonquian word. This title covers North America, Europe and Asia; a companion, not yet available in English, covers South America, Africa, and Australia. Thumbnails serve as an index.
Amazing art makes this a browser’s delight, but they should go elsewhere for solid information . (Picture book. 5-12)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-909263-96-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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