A contemplative, sobering extinction story.
In the “vast and boundless” wilderness, a leopard roams in hopes he’s not alone.
Searching for another of its kind, the leopard encounters the harshness of nature. Thirsty, he can drink “only on rainy days,” as the rest of the time, “the sun beat[s] down…like a burning fireball in the sky.” Days into his journey, still “not a single leopard” is to be found. Soon he does, however, meet several creatures, including a pigeon, a groundhog, and an oak tree—each one wondering if it too is the only one of its kind left in the world. In each exchange, the leopard comforts his new acquaintance and is comforted in return. Despite his discouragement, he continues to rally and to persist. A final encounter with a pond after a rainstorm brings bittersweet solace. Cao’s patient, undeterred leopard is compelling, though the storytelling can be unsubtle if heartbreaking (particularly the conclusion). The uncredited translation feels stilted at times, and line breaks in wordy passages as well as the text placement sometimes disrupt the flow. Li’s textured full-color art depicts the wilderness primarily in blues, yellows, and browns. Rainy spreads set in black highlight the leopard’s relief in quenching his thirst and work in contrast to the leopard’s climactic water encounter, done in the dominant palette.
A contemplative, sobering extinction story. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-76036-088-7
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Starfish Bay
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so...
A pro bono Twinkie of a book invites readers to fly off in a magic plane to bring clean water to our planet’s oceans, deserts, and brown children.
Following a confusingly phrased suggestion beneath a soft-focus world map to “touch the Earth. Now touch where you live,” a shake of the volume transforms it into a plane with eyes and feathered wings that flies with the press of a flat, gray “button” painted onto the page. Pressing like buttons along the journey releases a gush of fresh water from the ground—and later, illogically, provides a filtration device that changes water “from yucky to clean”—for thirsty groups of smiling, brown-skinned people. At other stops, a tap on the button will “help irrigate the desert,” and touching floating bottles and other debris in the ocean supposedly makes it all disappear so the fish can return. The 20 children Coh places on a globe toward the end are varied of skin tone, but three of the four young saviors she plants in the flier’s cockpit as audience stand-ins are white. The closing poem isn’t so openly parochial, though it seldom rises above vague feel-good sentiments: “Love the Earth, the moon and sun. / All the children can be one.”
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so easy to clean the place up and give everyone a drink? (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2083-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
No red—but lots of tooth and claw on display.
Face-to-face introductions to over two dozen creatures it would be better to avoid.
Labeling each predator as either extinct or modern-day, Jenkins arranges his paper-collage portraits—most of them rendered, as usual, with seemingly miraculous realism—in no readily obvious order. Starting off with the cruel-beaked “terror bird” (extinct) of South America and toothy views of a gaping Siberian tiger and T. Rex, he proceeds past African wild dogs (“some of the most successful predators on earth, with nine out of ten hunts ending in a kill”), the electric eel, killer pig Daedon, 48-foot-long (14.5 m) Titanoboa, and like threats to the spiderlike Trigonotarbid, just an inch long (2.5 cm) but 400 million years ago one of the largest predators on land. Then, in true browser-rousing fashion, he proposes several matchups, like the Siberian tiger vs. Utahraptor. Place your bets! Each creature comes with descriptive notes and a small silhouette posed next to a human (“The deadliest predator”) for scale. Measurements for each creature are provided in first English and then metric units. The bibliography includes an unremarkable assortment of reference works and websites.
No red—but lots of tooth and claw on display. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-67160-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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