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FUR, FEATHER, FIN

Name: FUR, FEATHER, FIN
Author: Diane Lang
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4709-6

ALL OF US ARE KIN

by Diane Lang ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018

A very welcome addition to nature shelves.

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Major similarities and differences among six classes of animals—and two additional animal categories—are explained with the aid of simple rhymes and sophisticated art.

A text that aspires to reveal nature facts using rhythm and rhyme can easily fall into pitfalls—sometimes sacrificing meaning for good scansion or vice versa. Amazingly, this book manages to convey elemental facts about animals with verse that both scans and informs. The initial double-page spread shows two children gazing at creatures in a tide pool. The book’s opening (and closing) lines emphasize the idea that Earth’s animals have many tangible differences but also that all are, as the subtitle says, “kin.” Variations that categorize each family are discussed and illustrated in the pages that follow. An excellent double-page spread of appealing mammals illustrating the qualifying traits of milk, fur, warmbloodedness, live birth, and parental care is followed by an equally thoughtful spread with a lineup of humans as mammals that contains diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, and the many ways that human families are defined. Categories beyond common animal families include “detritovores,” which merits this descriptive—and humorous—couplet: “Detritovores, so oft forgotten, / dine on things both dead and rotten.” As with the rest of the text, the couplet is followed by further explanation of the category and accompanied by vibrant, detailed art. Backmatter provides both further information and resources for readers who want to help animals.

A very welcome addition to nature shelves. (Informational picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4814-4709-6

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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THE LONG AND SHORT TAIL OF COLO AND RUFF
by Diane Lang ; illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

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DAYTIME NIGHTTIME, ALL THROUGH THE YEAR
by Diane Lang ; illustrated by Andrea Gabriel

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VULTURE VERSES
by Diane Lang & illustrated by Laura Gallegos

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BUTT OR FACE?

From the Butt or Face? series

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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DON'T TRUST FISH

by Neil Sharpson ; illustrated by Dan Santat ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 2025

A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.

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Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.

The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).

A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)