by Brian Patten ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2000
An ornamental alphabet book about the creation and endurance of planet Earth, full of reverberating symbols and images. A is for ark, the small green and blue planet drifting in a sea of space. Each subsequent letter highlights treasures of the Earth and the space ocean it floats in. A richness develops in the juxtaposition of ideas: N is for narwhal, which gave birth to the legend of the unicorn, but also for a fox’s nuzzle and “for the night and its shadows creeping.” Extinct animals are remembered, joy and jellybeans are celebrated, as are ice, languages, and the other planets. Every spread is created by one of eleven illustrators, among them Jane Ray and David Parkins, providing variety to the poetry within, and every illuminated letter glows like a painted jewel. A fine tribute. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-07969-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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by Brian Patten ; illustrated by Nicola Bayley
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by Julie Hofstrand Larios ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999
As she lovingly details the comfortable disarray of a perfectly splendid staircase, a small mouse counts off the stairs in a game she has clearly played many times. The rhyme skips and leaps from “First step. Rain step,” because that’s where her puddle boots are, to the third step, where the window seat is, to the sixth, where she can peer into her own bedroom, to the eleventh where the night light lives, and the twelfth where she can go back down and start again. She’s accompanied by her little sister and readers catch a glimpse at the end of a mother, father, and baby, too. The details are whimsical, and the rhyme infectious. A real treat, perfectly centered on a small child’s perceptions and experience. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-886910-34-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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by Carolyn Lesser ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999
In this visual feast from Lesser and Regan (Dig Hole, Soft Mole, 1996), so striking are the oil and gouache wildlife portraits that, despite the counting book framework, numbers are nearly an afterthought. Every spread has a you-are-there quality, as if readers are peering into a rock-strewn stream to spy six fire salamanders or scuba diving alongside one leopard ray in the murky blue. The book opens with an invitation—“Spotted creatures/wait for you. Snoop and find them/count them, too”—as Lesser toys with language, using active verbs to describe the kinds of spots found on each animal: “Staring, rippling, jetting spots” dapple five reef squid; “loping, gazing, nibbling spots” grace seven reticulated giraffes. Although spots are the unifying theme, the creatures have been carefully selected not only for their markings but for their habitats or biomes, identified and outlined in a final glossary. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-200666-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
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by Carolyn Lesser & illustrated by Ted Rand
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by Carolyn Lesser & illustrated by Laura Regan
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