Globalization is integral to today’s society, and everyone, children and adults, needs a better sense of geography, but this atlas with old-fashioned watercolor illustrations and painted maps that are difficult to read is not the best way for kids to learn. It includes tidbits of information about history, holidays, inventions and foods, but it lacks area and population figures. Children in the middle-elementary grades need clear maps and photos to gain a sense of reality about the world. Warm fuzzy feelings (“Nature has given our planet amazing landforms”) and disparate fun facts have a place, but unfortunately this “introduction,” with its pop-up globe and stickers (not seen, but they may be the best part of the package) does little to de-romanticize the world’s cultures (in Ho Chi Minh City, “people ride bicycles instead of driving cars”). This oversimplified approach may work in other books in the A Child’s Introduction to… series, but in this subject area, The National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers (2007) is a better choice for home, schools and public libraries. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-57912-832-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
Miranda’s book counts the monsters gathering at a birthday party, while a simple rhyming text keeps the tally and surveys the action: “Seven starved monsters are licking the dishes./Eight blow out candles and make birthday wishes.” The counting proceeds to ten, then by tens to fifty, then gradually returns to one, which makes the monster’s mother, a purple pin-headed octopus, very happy. The book is surprisingly effective due to Powell’s artwork; the color has texture and density, as if it were poured onto the page, but the real attention-getter is the singularity of every monster attendee. They are highly individual and, therefore, eminently countable. As the numbers start crawling upward, it is both fun and a challenge to try to recognize monsters who have appeared in previous pages, or to attempt to stay focused when counting the swirling or bunched creatures. The story has glints of humor, and in combination with the illustrations is a grand addition to the counting shelf. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201835-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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