An attractive addition to natural-science shelves.
After a clear pronunciation guide on the title page, readers learn examples of antipodes on Earth—and a few respective animal inhabitants—and why they never share daylight hours.
Offering a clear definition of “antipodes,” the introductory double-page spread features a huge, stylized rendition of Earth in outer space, setting up the idea that there are “amazing animals” living in places that are exactly opposite each other on the globe. “Each creature has evolved and adapted to live in their own special place in the world.” The double-page spread that follows starts a pattern that holds for the next 10 page turns: There’s a small amount of information in graceful language (“The North Pole. Under the northern lights, polar bears roam by icy waves”); vivid, colorful, collagelike art across the top halves of the pages; and the unique fun of turning each spread upside down to access the art and text describing the right-side-up’s antipode. There is a small globe at dead center of each spread on which the relevant antipodes are indicated, but its location and hard-to-decipher land shapes detract from usefulness. The final pages clearly explain the planet’s rotation, revolution, and tilt—again accompanied by striking artwork. The endpapers offer additional delight, with labeled, colored-pencil renditions of animals that readers may (or may not) have noticed during their first read.
An attractive addition to natural-science shelves. (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-939547-49-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
The sense of wonder that infuses each simply worded chapter is contagious, and some of the photos are soooo cuuuuute.
The author of an adult book about uncommon animal attachments invites emergent readers to share the warm (Unlikely Friendships, 2011).
This is the first of four spinoffs, all rewritten and enhanced with fetching color photographs of the subject. It pairs a very young rhesus monkey with a dove, one cat with a zoo bear and another that became a “seeing-eye cat” for a blind dog (!), an old performing elephant with a stray dog and a lion in the Kenyan wild with a baby oryx. Refreshingly, the author, a science writer, refrains from offering facile analyses of the relationships’ causes or homiletic commentary. Instead, she explains how each companionship began, what is surprising about it and also how some ended, from natural causes or otherwise. There is a regrettable number of exclamation points, but they are in keeping with the overall enthusiastic tone.
The sense of wonder that infuses each simply worded chapter is contagious, and some of the photos are soooo cuuuuute. (animal and word lists) (Nonfiction. 7-9)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7611-7011-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
Norma Dixon’s Lowdown on Earthworms (2005) digs deeper into the subject, but this lays fertile groundwork for budding...
Beginning readers who tunnel through this upbeat first introduction will “dig” them too.
After an opening look at several kinds of worm (including the candy sort), McCloskey drills down to the nitty-gritty on earthworms. He describes how they help soil with their digging and “poop” (“EEW!”) and presents full-body inside and outside views with labeled parts. He also answers in the worms’ collective voice such questions as “Why do you come out after the rain?” and “How big is the biggest worm in the world?” that are posed by a multiethnic cast of intent young investigators in the cartoon illustrations. A persistent but frustrated bluebird’s “Yum, yum!!” and rejected invitations to lunch offer indirect references to worms as food sources, and reproductive details are likewise limited to oblique notes that worms have big families “born from cocoons.” Single scenes mingle with short sequences of panels in pictures that are drawn on brown paper bags for an appropriately earthy look.
Norma Dixon’s Lowdown on Earthworms (2005) digs deeper into the subject, but this lays fertile groundwork for budding naturalists. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-935179-80-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: TOON Books & Graphics
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
