Deceptively sharp, like a wombat’s bottom.
Equal parts field guide and story—and all wombat.
Delicately detailed artwork in browns and greens expertly generates a storybook feeling of the natural world. Sharing pigment with the roots and soil, the wombat’s introduction is literally grounding. A day-in-the-life flow introduces usual activities like sleeping and territory defense with unrhymed yet poetic prose. The effect is endearing, sweet, and approachable. A clear serif type relates the narrative of the wombat’s movements. Accompanying facts about their teeth, burrows, poop, and more are presented in a spindly, italicized sans-serif type with a hand-lettered look that suggests field notes. Cheng’s careful yet playful word choices and Duthie’s expert penciled lines and brush strokes will draw in art appreciators, educators, caregivers, and the children they serve. Fabulous action words like snarls, dives, and pants lend themselves to both vocabulary building and entertaining read-alouds. One point of confusion is the backing of many illustrations with white, which may have readers imagining daytime despite mention of the wombat’s nocturnal habits. Otherwise, this volume offers a solid combination of story and information. Wombats’ deployment of their “bony bottoms” to fend off their few predators and their secret pouches for their young will tickle and warm anyone to the wombat’s ways. (This book was reviewed digitally)
Deceptively sharp, like a wombat’s bottom. (index) (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2036-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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