Timely.
The premise: “Trees—both living and dead—are microhabitats where all sorts of activity takes place.”
Most of the vibrant, mixed-media art is laid out in double-page spreads. The initial one describes a boreal forest. It also introduces a mature balsam tree, about 24 inches in diameter, that will be followed, loosely, from its current, upright status all the way to the decayed state of “nurse log.” The conversational text is both informative and verbose. In general, the text uses larger type for the trajectory of the tree’s life and for general facts about forest life, with further details displayed in smaller font. The first pages note the tree’s importance for shelter, food, soil stabilization, and oxygen. There is one early mention of one role of dead trees, but it is after the previously identified balsam is uprooted by weather that the text firmly asserts that the tree’s downing signifies a crucially important “second life.” Bacteria, fungi, and insects work on decomposition; earthworms eat bacteria and fungi and create humus. The colorful pages that follow are full of facts about flora and fauna availing themselves of fallen-tree benefits during up to 125 years of seasonal cycles. The final page before the author’s note reiterates an idea that is still controversial in forest-management circles: that dead and dying trees are necessary to healthy forests. To appreciate the text, it should be read sequentially but not in one sitting.
Timely. (author’s note, activity, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7281-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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
BOOK REVIEW
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
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