No hype here: understated enchantment.
Spare, rhyming text and detailed artwork inform readers about the life cycle of a sycamore tree, from seed to maturity—and its role in the ecosystem.
“It starts with a seed,” proclaims the dark ink across from art that shows one helicopter seed in the foreground, dozens gently falling in the background, and a small line of stubble at the bottom, representing the ground. High-quality, cream-colored paper, pencil-framed margins, a well-chosen palette, and excellent use of negative space begin here and continue throughout. The poem continues over two more page turns: “But where does it lead? // To a root, to a shoot, / to a few tiny leaves.” Exquisite, naturalistically rendered ink-and-watercolor art encourages readers to pause at each double-page spread. As the tree ages—and subtly shows a hint of sentience—more and more animals assemble in its branches and in the ground surrounding its roots. An abundance of nouns, verbs, and adjectives describing the tree’s growth effortlessly increases vocabularies, spread by spread and stanza by stanza. At the end, a foldout uses one page to re-create the entire text as one poem and then offers more information, in prose, about sycamores. While giving a general idea of how one journey from seed to tree influences an entire ecosystem, the text also emphasizes the wonder of growth—and life—itself. The tone is soothing and reverential.
No hype here: understated enchantment. (Informational picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-910277-26-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
A lyrical and educational look at the water cycle.
Through many types of weather and the different seasons, water tells readers about its many forms.
“Sometimes I’m the rain cloud / and sometimes I’m the rain.” Water can make rainbows and can appear to be different colors. Water is a waterfall, a wave, an ocean swell, a frozen pond, the snow on your nose, a cloud, frost, a comet, a part of you. Throughout, Paterson’s rhyming verses evoke images of their own: “Soon the summer sun is back / and warms me with its rays. / I rise in rumbling thunderheads / like castles in the haze,” though at times word order seems to have been chosen for rhyme rather than meaning (“In fall I sink into a fog / and blanket chilly fields, / with pumpkins touched by morning frost / the harvest season yields”). Backmatter includes a diagram of the water cycle that introduces and describes each step with solid vocabulary, including “Collection” as a step in the process; “The Science Behind the Poetry,” which unpacks some of the poetic language and phrases; some water activities and explorations; conservation tips; and a list of other books from the publisher about water. Paterson’s full- and double-page–spread illustrations are just as magical as his verse, showing water in its many forms from afar and close up. Few people appear on his pages, but the vast majority of those are people of color.
A lyrical and educational look at the water cycle. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58469-615-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wow.
The stories of the births of the universe, the planet Earth, and a human child are told in this picture book.
Bauer begins with cosmic nothing: “In the dark / in the deep, deep dark / a speck floated / invisible as thought / weighty as God.” Her powerful words build the story of the creation of the universe, presenting the science in poetic free verse. First, the narrative tells of the creation of stars by the Big Bang, then the explosions of some of those stars, from which dust becomes the matter that coalesces into planets, then the creation of life on Earth: a “lucky planet…neither too far / nor too near…its yellow star…the Sun.” Holmes’ digitally assembled hand-marbled paper-collage illustrations perfectly pair with the text—in fact the words and illustrations become an inseparable whole, as together they both delineate and suggest—the former telling the story and the latter, with their swirling colors suggestive of vast cosmos, contributing the atmosphere. It’s a stunning achievement to present to readers the factual events that created the birth of the universe, the planet Earth, and life on Earth with such an expressive, powerful creativity of words paired with illustrations so evocative of the awe and magic of the cosmos. But then the story goes one brilliant step further and gives the birth of a child the same beginning, the same sense of magic, the same miracle.
Wow. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7883-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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