Cold winter weather challenges animals. Using examples from eight species—praying mantis, field cricket, dragonfly, ladybug, honeybee, pavement ant, monarch butterfly, arctic woolly bear—Hansen explains different strategies insects use to survive. Some hide, others lay eggs; a few migrate and some can even freeze. Wildlife painter Kray’s glorious double-page acrylic illustrations show the animals in context, including minute detail. Readers can see the tiny projections on the legs of field crickets, spines on the backs of ants and each hair where the insect has fuzz, even on honeybee legs. In an appealing conversational tone, the author includes information about life cycles, preferred habitats and living arrangements. She presents each insect as an individual, not quite personified but occasionally with improbable intention in their behavior. “Pavement ant can’t imagine life without other ants.” As her note suggests, what animals do in winter is a common childhood question. This is the first title for young readers in 25 years to offer an answer. Two easy ice experiments add a hands-on dimension. A splendid addition to the science shelf. (additional reading, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 5-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59078-269-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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