An appealing first look.
The manatee subject of a school report objects so strongly to being compared to a cow that she barges in to correct the writer.
This engaging account is disguised as a homework assignment on marine mammals. Federman’s report is written by hand, in pencil, on lined paper, but the manatee in her crayon illustrations comes to life, commenting on the text in speech bubbles that contain large, legible type. She’s not a cow. She’s sure she’s not related to an elephant but is quite taken with being seen as a mermaid. Various interesting facts are conveyed in the process, and there are more (from the manatee) in an afterword. Federman’s manatee is basically a shmoo-shaped blue blob with eyes, an expressive snout and mouth, and a tail instead of legs, but in the frontmatter, there’s a more realistic diagram, a portion of a photograph, and a portion of a map of the Florida coast and Belize, both places where West Indian manatees can be found. Digitally collaged art combines the paper of the report with photos of pencils and crayons to emulate a student’s workspace. Finally, there’s a mention of manatee adoption programs for readers who have also decided the manatee is their “new favorite animal.” Pair with titles by Jim Arnosky—A Manatee Morning (2000), All about Manatees (2008), or Slow Down for Manatees, (2010)—for a more detailed picture.
An appealing first look. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7874-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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