A cogent and comical reminder to those with stars in their eyes that there are also wonders closer to home.
Goldilocks herself (along with Baby Bear) takes a solar system tour to discover why Earth is just right for life (as we know it).
Astronomers use the term Goldilocks Zone to describe the general distance from any sun that would not be too hot nor cold—and if Sheneman neglects to mention that nearly all stars besides our own have one or, for that matter, the possibility that life could exist on certain moons too, still he makes a good case for cherishing our one certain home. Guided by a disheveled-looking White gent in a lab coat and clad in bubble-helmeted spacesuits, the blond, White young burglar and her ursine counterpart, cracking wise as they go, hop from one inhospitable planet to the next (“If you tried to stand on the surface of Saturn, you’d sink into a toxic soup of gas and ice until the pressure popped you like a grape”). As they travel, they gather important planetary facts (“Wait…ammonia, methane…Neptune is made of fart gas!”) to digest along with still-warm bowls of porridge when they arrive back on Earth. Paired with broader approaches to understanding our place in the universe, like Tom Sullivan’s Out There (2019), this lively excursion will leave audiences stirred by what lies around them as well as what awaits up in the skies. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A cogent and comical reminder to those with stars in their eyes that there are also wonders closer to home. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-297236-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
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
BOOK REVIEW
A good overview of this complex, essential organ, with an energetic seasoning of silliness.
An introduction to the lead guitar and vocalist for the Brainiacs—the human brain.
The brain (familiar to readers of Seluk’s “The Awkward Yeti” webcomic, which spun off the adult title Heart and Brain, 2015) looks like a dodgeball with arms and legs—pinkish, sturdy, and roundish, with a pair of square-framed spectacles bestowing an air of importance and hipness. Other organs of the body—tongue, lungs, stomach, muscle, and heart—are featured as members of the brain’s rock band (the verso of the dust jacket is a poster of the band). Seluk’s breezy, conversational prose and brightly colored, boldly outlined cartoon illustrations deliver basic information. The brain’s role in keeping the heart beating and other automatic functions, directing body movements, interpreting sights and sounds, remembering smells and tastes, and regulating sleep and hunger are all explained, prose augmented by dialogue balloons and information sidebars. Seluk points out, importantly, that feelings originate in the brain: “You can control how you react…but your feelings happen no matter what.” The parodied album covers on the front endpapers (including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Green Day, Run DMC, Queen, Nirvana) will amuse parents—or at least grandparents—and the rear endpapers serve up band members’ clever social media and texting screenshots. Backmatter includes a glossary and further brain trivia but no resources or bibliography.
A good overview of this complex, essential organ, with an energetic seasoning of silliness. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-16700-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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