A pleasant, simplified examination of the significance of the lowly earthworm, just in time for garden encounters.
Earthworm Carl works busily underground, burrowing, eating, and depositing soil-enriching castings—until a field mouse asks, “Why?”
Carl suspends his usual activities to find out, querying a rabbit, fox, squirrel, and many others until, over time, these very creatures are compelled to travel away for sustenance. When a ground beetle despairs, “I can’t find any grubs!” Carl realizes that the soil he has neglected has become hard-packed dirt. Suddenly, his purpose is clear. “For hours into days, weeks into months, Carl munched, digested, left castings, and tunneled…and turned that hard dirt back into rich soil.” The returning animals appreciate the results: sprouting seeds, blossoming clover, and an integrated ecosystem made possible by earthworms like Carl. Freedman’s digitally assembled watercolors feature washes of green, yellow, ocher, and brown. She augments her speaking cast of woodland animals with additional small creatures for children to discover. A brief but pithy author’s note celebrates the interconnectedness of all creatures, including the reader. A quote from Darwin on the importance of the earthworm completes the package.
A pleasant, simplified examination of the significance of the lowly earthworm, just in time for garden encounters. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-47498-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A disappointing follow-up.
Inventor Izzy Gizmo is back in this sequel to her eponymous debut (2017).
While busily inventing one day, Izzy receives an invitation from the Genius Guild to their annual convention. Though Izzy’s “inventions…don’t always work,” Grandpa (apparently her sole caregiver) encourages her to go. The next day they undertake a long journey “over fields, hills, and waves” and “mile after mile” to isolated Technoff Isle. There, Izzy finds she must compete against four other kids to create the most impressive machine. The colorful, detail-rich illustrations chronicle how poor Izzy is thwarted at every turn by Abi von Lavish, a Veruca Salt–esque character who takes all the supplies for herself. But when Abi abandons her project, Izzy salvages the pieces and decides to take Grandpa’s advice to create a machine that “can really be put to good use.” A frustrated Izzy’s impatience with a friend almost foils her chance at the prize, but all’s well that ends well. There’s much to like: Brown-skinned inventor girl Izzy is an appealing character, it’s great to see a nurturing brown-skinned male caregiver, the idea of an “Invention Convention” is fun, and a sustainable-energy invention is laudable. However, these elements don’t make up for rhymes that often feel forced and a lackluster story.
A disappointing follow-up. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68263-164-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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