Wondrous and wonderful, for reading and thinking and sharing.
A celebration of transitions in the animal world.
The late April Pulley Sayre documents the in-between moments of animal lives in this posthumously published poem and photo album co-authored by her husband, Jeff. In words and pictures, they demonstrate preparations, waiting, anticipation, even some trepidation—animal experiences that their human readers will surely share. Ground squirrels, chipmunks, and raccoons peek out from hiding places. There are takeoffs, flights, and landings featuring a chickadee, a robin, a blue jay, a red-tailed hawk, a wood stork, flamingos, and a whale leaping from the water. Some images show animals in families: robins in a nest, squirrels, Canada geese, two groundhogs. Many depict young animals, not quite prepared to go out in the world, “awkward,” “unsteady,” “almost ready.” A green darner dragonfly still perched on its previous nymph form—“body transformed, / but not yet gliding.” The close-up images are crisp and clear, the word choice is precise, and the poem flows smoothly—April Pulley Sayre has a well-deserved reputation for combining visuals and text to encourage a child’s awe at the natural world, and this exemplary work is a shining example. The animals are not identified, but most will be familiar to young American readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Wondrous and wonderful, for reading and thinking and sharing. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8781-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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