A handsome, well-researched tribute to forest ecology and the brave people who help protect it.
Presenting panoramas of a lightning-sparked wildfire, Wolff honors a forest ecosystem and the workers who monitor, manage, and fight forest fires.
Cinematic scenes toggle between animals—sensing danger, seeking shelter for themselves and their young—and humans, who are spotting, communicating, and fighting the wildfire, from the air and on the ground. Various birds—jay, raven, and more—sound the alarm, echoing Wolff’s refrain: “FireFireFire in the forest!” Double-page spreads feature dramatic perspectives and a palette of cool blue-greens and browns, and fiery red, yellow, and purple. Wolff portrays the humans involved in this crucial, often dangerous work as a committed group of racially and gender-diverse workers: Maria staffs a fire lookout; Mia’s a pilot ferrying smokejumpers. Dedicating the project to her son Brennan, a Pacific Northwest hotshot for three seasons, Wolff depicts him by name as a crew member. A bulldozer’s wide swath of “scraped earth finally halts the fire’s march.” A welcome storm helps douse flames as tired crews return to base and pilots fly smokejumpers to new wildfires. Final spreads convey a charred forest that nonetheless highlights some of fire’s natural, regenerative properties: burst pine cones with nuts for squirrels; temporary meadows for deer; tree snags for foraging woodpeckers. An author’s note details shifts in federal response to wildfires and the increasing impacts of climate change and human activity.(This book was reviewed digitally.)
A handsome, well-researched tribute to forest ecology and the brave people who help protect it. (glossary, firefighting tools, sources) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8773-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.
This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.
Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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