Too glib for comfort.
A picture-book biography of Englishwoman Evelyn Cheesman emphasizes her perseverance in a man’s world during a particularly male-oriented era.
The first verso shows three light-skinned girls in pinafores, their activities demonstrating that girls in the 1880s were expected to be “quiet, clean, and covered with lace.” As with all the art, color and composition are appealing, but the humans are bland and one-dimensional. The text goes on to say that girls were certainly banned from “bug hunts.” On the facing page, a soiled little girl kneels in a forest glade, dragonfly on forefinger. The text reads, “But Evelyn went anyway.” That mantra is repeated when, years later, she becomes the first woman to run the London Zoo’s insect house; the third time involves world travel as an insect-collecting woman. Its fourth repetition unabashedly introduces the uncomfortable fact of colonialism. On the Pacific island of Nuku Hiva, the white woman stands in her standard outfit of crisp white shirt and safari hat, facing “villagers”—five brown-skinned people with grass skirts and spears—who tell her not to climb a steep cliff. “But Evelyn went anyway.” She is eventually recognized by Queen Elizabeth II for, among other things, “discover[ing] new species” in other populated parts of the empire. Perhaps it is by way of apology that further notes on Cheesman appear after an interview with contemporary female entomologist Alexandra Harmon-Threatt, who is African American.
Too glib for comfort. (endnotes, bibliography.) (Biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-943147-66-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: The Innovation Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A limited but mildly stimulating gathering on a (possibly) timely theme.
Animal athletes compete for the gold.
In this unrelated but similarly conceived counterpart to Richard Turner’s Wildlife Winter Games, illustrated by Ben Clifford (2019), three disparate competitors line up to show their stuff in each of 12 events, from long jump (flea; grasshopper; kangaroo rat: “I can jump backward, too!”) to general climbing (gecko; gelada baboon; mountain goat). Brown supplies a few lines of basic facts about the capabilities of each entrant and awards the gold to one—often the smallest, as, for instance, rhinoceros beetles can lift many more times their body weight than elephants or gorillas, and a mantis shrimp’s punch is more powerful for its size than anything a brown hare or eastern gray kangaroo can deliver. In her tidy, stylized illustrations, Tanis doesn’t draw the animals to scale but does outfit them in athletic gear and garb on one side of each double-page spread to add a bit of fun and then shows them in natural settings on facing pages. Steer readers with a yen to continue the games to Martin Jenkins’ Animal Awards, illustrated by Tor Freeman (2019), which broadens the areas of competition beyond sports, and Mark Carwardine’s much more expansive Natural History Museum Book of Animal Records (2013).
A limited but mildly stimulating gathering on a (possibly) timely theme. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78240-987-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Ivy Kids
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
An eye-opener, though the readiest audience probably already loves them.
In her latest animal survey, Barr focuses on select wild residents of six habitats threatened by climate change or other human misuse.
The tally begins and ends with elephants but encompasses creatures including puffins, penguins, blue whales, and Bengal tigers. The number included exceeds the 50 singled out for empathy-building observations such as “Giraffes give birth standing up, so their babies start life with a bump as they fall to the ground!” or “Octopuses…solve problems, use tools and, if bored, they play!” Introductory paragraphs on, mostly, the perilous state of each habitat (“Around the world oceans are polluted—awash with plastic”) supplement the titular 50 reasons, and the author tucks in frequent suggestions for low-effort ways young activists can show concern. As in 10 Reasons To Love a Bear (2018) and its predecessors, the smiling, googly-eyed animals in Clulow’s comfortably spacious natural scenes require some getting used to, and some scenes are overlabeled (do readers really need captions for “ice” or “lake”?). Still, the creatures and settings are easily recognizable, and the message is delivered clearly but without the scary urgency of the author’s Red Alert! Endangered Animals Around the World, illustrated by Anne Wilson (2018).
An eye-opener, though the readiest audience probably already loves them. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5246-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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