LUNA LUMINOSA, ¿DÓNDE ESTÁS? / LUMINOUS MOON, WHERE ARE YOU?

Name: LUNA LUMINOSA, ¿DÓNDE ESTÁS? / LUMINOUS MOON, WHERE ARE YOU?
Author: Aracely De Alvarado
ISBN: 978-1-55885-911-1

by Aracely De Alvarado ; illustrated by Victoria Castillo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2020

STEM content and a Spanish lullaby pair up for a satisfying bedtime story.

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A boy discovers that the moon is missing from the sky and enlists the help of nighttime animals to find it in this bilingual picture book.

Juanito opens his front door one night to be met with a moonless night sky, so he decides to ask a variety of nocturnal animals if they are the ones who have taken the moon away. Each animal he asks, from the coyote to the fireflies, tells him they do not have the moon. Eventually, Juanito discovers the truth: that the visible moon is constantly changing but will always return. The traditional Spanish children’s song “Sale la luna” is incorporated into the story and adds musicality to the finish of the book. The lyrics remind young readers in both Spanish and English that “The moon comes out so round / … / Always bright no matter the size.” Each double-page spread includes an image of five moon phases as seen from the Southern Hemisphere. After the cicada is introduced, it playfully interacts with the moon-phases graphic for added fun. The animal sounds used in each character’s response to Juanito’s queries make for perfect read-aloud potential. The dreamlike illustrations depict Juanito as a young Latinx boy with brown skin and straight brown hair.

STEM content and a Spanish lullaby pair up for a satisfying bedtime story. (Bilingual picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-55885-911-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público

Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
LA DIVINA CATRINA / OH, DIVINE CATRINA
by Aracely De Alvarado ; illustrated by Claudia Navarro

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WHERE IS MAMA?

A POP-UP STORY

by Yating Hung ; illustrated by Yating Hung ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 9, 2013

A miniodyssey, familiar but elemental, and played out amid plenty of smiles and pop-ups.

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An aquatic take on the ever-popular “Are you my mother?” plotline, weak in the natural-history department but fully cozy.

After Mama Frog lays her eggs in some “seaweed” she finds in her pond and goes off to find a lily pad for a home, five big-eyed tadpoles hatch and go in search of her. As they don’t know what she looks like, they accost Mama Duck, Mama Fish, Mama Crab and others. All of these mothers, rather than eat the tadpoles as many would do in real life, indulgently send them along with different descriptions of their real mama. Working with a palette of harmonious greens and grays, Hung crafts serene-looking pondscapes that open with tabs and lifted flaps into spacious, layered tableaux. When Mama Frog’s ribbits lead at last to a joyful meeting, her offspring’s first question is not, considering the storyline, the natural one about why they don’t look anything like her. Instead, they ask her to teach them her froggy song. She promises that once they do change to frogs, “we will sing ‘ribbit, ribbit’ together, all day and night!”

A miniodyssey, familiar but elemental, and played out amid plenty of smiles and pop-ups. (Pop-up/picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: April 9, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4197-0718-6

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Abrams Appleseed

Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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MAISY GROWS A GARDEN

From the Maisy First Science Book series

by Lucy Cousins ; illustrated by Lucy Cousins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2013

Helpful groundbreaking for budding gardeners, despite moving parts that are far from toddler-proof.

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Not Maisy’s first garden but perhaps her most bountiful.

With assists from pull tabs, Maisy digs, plants, waters, weeds and finally harvests a vegetable garden (with help from Panda, who also plants sunflower seeds). Like the snail, earthworm and various insects that look on, children will smile as seedlings rise from the rich, chocolate-brown earth—putting down visible roots, too. With proper care, they turn into carrots and lettuce, clusters of green beans and ripe tomatoes hanging beneath lush greenery. A topical glossary to the left of each growing scene introduces words like “watering can” and “dandelion.” Kicking off her muddy boots in the final spread, Maisy leans back to enjoy the fruits of her labor and admire the sunflowers that unfold atop tall stems: “How beautiful the plants are!”

Helpful groundbreaking for budding gardeners, despite moving parts that are far from toddler-proof. (Pop up/picture book. 3-4)