by Brenda Z. Guiberson & illustrated by Ilya Spirin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2008
Polar bears—so cute and cuddly, at least from a distance—have become the new poster animal in the fight against global warming, and this book earnestly tries to explain why. In December, a hibernating bear gives birth to twins. By the time the trio leaves the den in March, the mother is thin and has only a few months to hunt seals before the polar ice melts. She and the cubs survive a long Arctic summer before the ice freezes and they can hunt again. The real action takes place in the endnote: Global warming is melting the polar ice, with disastrous consequences for the bears. Unless we “take action,” the bears may be lost. The book is vaguely alarmist—thin bears, starving bears—but offers readers no way to help other than a generic “burn less fossil fuels.” Spirin’s watercolors make the most of the bears and their habitat, but they remain symbols, not characters, despite many onomatopoeic attempts to make the tale sparkle. Robert E. Wells’s Polar Bear, Why Is Your World Melting? (2008) is the far superior book. (Informational picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7607-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
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by Megan McDonald & illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2012
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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by Megan McDonald ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
by Megan McDonald & illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
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by Megan McDonald ; illustrated by Scott Nash
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by Helen Ketteman & illustrated by James Warhola ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1997
A Cinderella parody features the off-the-wall, whang-dang Texas hyperbole of Ketteman (The Year of No More Corn, 1993, etc.) and the insouciance of Warhola, who proves himself only too capable of creating a fairy godcow; that she's so appealingly whimsical makes it easy to accept the classic tale's inversions. The protagonist is Bubba, appropriately downtrodden and overworked by his wicked stepdaddy and loathsome brothers Dwayne and Milton, who spend their days bossing him around. The other half of the happy couple is Miz Lurleen, who owns ``the biggest spread west of the Brazos.'' She craves male companionship to help her work the place, ``and it wouldn't hurt if he was cute as a cow's ear, either.'' There are no surprises in this version except in the hilarious way the premise plays itself out and in Warhola's delightful visual surprises. When Lurleen tracks the bootless Bubba down, ``Dwayne and Milton and their wicked daddy threw chicken fits.'' Bubba and babe, hair as big as a Texas sun, ride off to a life of happy ranching, and readers will be proud to have been along for the courtship. (Picture book/folklore. 6-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-25506-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997
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by Helen Ketteman ; illustrated by Bonnie Leick
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by Helen Ketteman ; illustrated by Will Terry
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