An immersive portrait of a truly magnificent creature.
Great blue herons combine grandeur, gawkiness, and grace.
On each spread, four poetic lines of text detail the birds’ breeding season, the use of present tense conveying a you-are-there immediacy. Wright’s accurate, freely sketched watercolorlike artwork, dominated by subdued hues of blue-gray, depicts these birds from a variety of perspectives. Sidebars relate further information (size, wingspan, diet, nesting and courtship, and the growth and maturation of the chicks). Herkert describes these birds hunting at night, though she doesn’t explain how their special vision makes that possible. We learn that heronries—or heron breeding colonies—often attract eagles, hawks, and owls, eager to prey upon the young birds. Between pages, one chick dies (readers aren’t told exactly how); the moment passes quickly, and the sidebar notes that such loss is common. Soon the surviving chicks are old enough to leave, and nests throughout the heronry “sit empty now”—but “next spring, the herons will return,” Herkert assures readers. Brief backmatter adds more information: Some great blues migrate seasonally, and conservation efforts are ongoing (though the author doesn’t mention that these birds are now happily in the “least concern” category). The sensitive artwork and spare text give the majestic great blues the focus they deserve.
An immersive portrait of a truly magnificent creature. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668955130
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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