In order to help endangered eider ducks and to restore an island to its natural state, the Icelandic government has given a family permission to collect eggs of wild birds and raise them for release. Drifa, a teenage girl, and her brother and sister travel to many of the remote islands off the coast of Iceland and gather over 200 eggs from the nests of wild birds. These are taken to a remote island owned by Drifa’s father. When the eggs hatch into velvety brown chicks, Drifa raises the ducks but resists cuddling or playing with them so they don’t become pets. These ducks will need to be self-sufficient on their own. She provides food, watches over them as they take a swim, protects them from marauding seagulls, and finally allows them to return to the wild. By early August, Drifa returns home to the mainland and the ducks must find their own way in the world. While the photographs are handsome and the brief story intriguing, the reader may wish the author had provided more information in the text or afterword. For example: what happened to the birds whose eggs they stole? How did they incubate the eggs? How long did the eggs take to hatch? Still, the concept is intriguing and should lead to further exploration. (author’s note, short bibliography) (Nonfiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-04878-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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