Compact, informative, and convincing.
Why and how to become a “climate change hero,” presented in pithy infographics.
Gibson lays it all out in a mix of easily graspable facts and trends embedded in tellingly designed graphics, from a five-toed “carbon footprint” to a pie chart describing energy use in the home to a stairlike vertical bar chart of increasingly effective personal ways to reduce that footprint and another one showing both rising ocean levels and cities that will be flooded over time. The author/illustrator invites readers to trace one decision tree to score their fresh fruit’s environmental impact and another before buying any new “stuff” while broadening their perspectives with maps, winding timelines, and visual representations that trace the history of life in terms of a single day (with humans trotting in over the last four seconds), show where the waste plastic is, present our planet as a set of interlocking units from cryosphere (“All the frozen water”) to atmosphere, and consider the “environmental cost of the clothes we wear.” Along with getting its message across in a visually stimulating way, this offers younger eco-activists a first-rate toolbox of facts and basic background on which to build.
Compact, informative, and convincing. (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781800660281
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Cicada Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
A refreshing dive past some of our world’s marine wonders.
Denizens of the deep crowd oversized pages in this populous gallery of ocean life.
The finny and tentacled sea creatures drifting or arrowing through Zommer’s teeming watercolor seascapes are generally recognizable, and they are livened rather than distorted by the artist’s tendency to place human eyes on the same side of many faces, Picasso-like. Headers such as “Ink-teresting” or “In for the krill” likewise add a playful tone to the pithy comments on anatomical features or behavioral quirks that accompany the figures (which include, though rarely, a white human diver). The topical spreads begin with an overview of ocean families (“Some are hairy, some have scales, some have fins and some are boneless and brainless!”), go on to introduce select animals in no particular order from sea horses and dragonets to penguins and pufferfish, then close with cautionary remarks on chemical pollution and floating plastic. The author invites readers as they go to find both answers to such questions as “Why does a crab run sideways?” and also a small sardine hidden in some, but not all, of the pictures. For the latter he provides a visual key at the end, followed by a basic glossary.
A refreshing dive past some of our world’s marine wonders. (index) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-500-65119-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An amiable point-counterpoint for budding animal lovers/haters.
Forty-two creatures of ill repute, from scorpions to hyenas, put on their best faces and protest that they’re just misunderstood.
In paired double-page spreads, Corrigan first presents for each animal the case for considering it scary or gross, then, with the page turn, allows it to contradict itself. “I’m creepy and I’m crawly,” a spider supposedly gloats. “I spin webs from my butt and leave them in places where I KNOW you’ll get stuck in them.” In the following spread, the spider points out that “Only half of my kind spin webs, and we really, REALLY don’t want you to get stuck in them!” Along with pointing to roles in the natural order and including many crowd-pleasing references to butts and poop, these counterarguments tend to run along the lines of the rat’s “I’m a fluffy little SWEETIE!” and the toad’s “I am a plump lump of CUTENESS!” Each testimonial is backed up by a box of background information baldly labeled “FACTS.” Readers may find the chorus of smiley faces and claims of adorability unconvincing, but they will at least come away with more nuanced impressions of each creepy-crawly. The humorous cartoon illustrations don’t measure up to the in-your-face photos of Seymour Simon’s classic Animals Nobody Loves (2001), but this gallery of beasties unfairly regarded as “icky and ewwy and downright gross” is considerably broader.
An amiable point-counterpoint for budding animal lovers/haters. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-4748-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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