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
BOOK REVIEW
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched.
An amiable introduction to our thrifty, sociable, teeming insect cousins.
Bunting notes that all the ants on Earth weigh roughly the same as all the people and observes that ants (like, supposedly, us) love recycling, helping others, and taking “micronaps.” They, too, live in groups, and their “superpower” is an ability to work together to accomplish amazing things. Bunting goes on to describe different sorts of ants within the colony (“Drone. Male. Does no housework. Takes to the sky. Reproduces. Drops dead”), how they communicate using pheromones, and how they get from egg to adult. He concludes that we could learn a lot from them that would help us leave our planet in better shape than it was when we arrived. If he takes a pass on mentioning a few less positive shared traits (such as our tendency to wage war on one another), still, his comparisons do invite young readers to observe the natural world more closely and to reflect on our connections to it. In the simple illustrations, generic black ants look up at viewers with little googly eyes while scurrying about the pages gathering food, keeping nests clean, and carrying outsized burdens.
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567784
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
