Recycling at its best.
A tribute to a decommissioned warship turned to a better purpose.
The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, or “The Mighty O,” saw action in the Korean and Vietnamese wars but rather than being scrapped at the end of its career, was scuttled off the Florida coast to serve as an artificial reef. It “remains the largest ship ever reefed,” and a sense of its length and bulk comes through clearly in Wright’s atmospherically lit, realistically detailed illustrations—some of which are full wordless spreads. Along with explaining in her spare account and one of several afterwords the importance of natural reefs as habitats and how they are endangered, Stremer highlights the painstaking efforts required to clear out the hulk, rid it of toxic substances, tow it to its final location, and control its sinking so that it comes to rest in a stable position. Amazingly, divers sent to inspect it only hours later found sea life already checking it out. Though Aimée M. Bissonette’s Shipwreck Reefs (2021), illustrated by Adèle Leyris, provides glimpses of a variety of manufactured reefs and closer looks at what lives on them, here the author’s quicker closing tally of marine residents gives the tale a properly triumphant finish. The groups of human workers appearing in a few scenes are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Recycling at its best. (select sources, tips for saving the reefs, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780823452682
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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