Informative in both pictures and words.
Migrating monarch butterflies must have milkweed.
This colorful title presents the development of monarch butterflies, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to flight and migration. Van Zandt uses a dual text—lyrical quatrains supplemented by exposition in a smaller typeface—set on bright, animation-style illustrations. A female monarch returns from a southern winter to seek out a place to lay her eggs. The author emphasizes the butterfly’s need for milkweed to provide for the next generation. What stands out are the in-depth, step-by-step descriptions and illustrations of the stages of the monarch’s development. Notably, Van Zandt mentions the ways milkweed defends itself against monarch caterpillars. Beginning with a panorama of monarchs leaving, presumably, Mexico or California, Barajas then uses close-up angles to show details of the egg laying and hatching, the changing caterpillar and chrysalis colors, and a newly hatched butterfly’s crumpled wings, ending with a smaller group of monarchs flying away. Early on, Van Zandt makes clear that monarch migration extends over four generations. She ends with a note describing her own developing interest in monarchs, the threats they face (including habitat loss, which makes finding milkweed more challenging), ways young readers can help, and fun facts about butterfly senses. This is familiar ground in picture books as well as early science education, but it’s an engaging introduction nonetheless.
Informative in both pictures and words. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8.)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781506489308
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beaming Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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