When an abandoned house on her street is torn down, Marcy feels saddened by its loss. But then an idea strikes her: She enlists the aid of several grown-up neighbors and rents the vacant lot from the city for the price of $1. Working together with materials like leftover yellow paint and surplus wood, the residents create a community garden and plant it with a variety of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Even Old Man Hammer, initially resistant to the plan and unwilling to help in any way, is drawn in by Marcy's goodwill and gentle perseverance. The illustrations, if not mesmerizing, capture the slightly gritty, faded look of the urban landscape adequately. The story is followed by a set of practical and helpful guidelines on how to start a community garden, which may inspire young green thumbs and civic-minded kids to get involved. An optimistic tale that manages to be both encouraging yet realistic about how to do some good in your very own backyard. (Picture book. 5+)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-12786-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not only does Jenkins (Life on Earth, 2002, etc.) again display a genius for creating paper-collage wildlife portraits with astonishingly realistic skin, fur, and feathers, but here on alternate spreads he zooms in for equally lifelike close-ups of ears, eyes, noses, mouths, feet, and tails. Five examples of each organ thrusting in from beyond the pages’ edges for each “What do you do” question precede spreads in which the point of view pulls back to show the whole animal, with a short accompanying caption. Visual surprises abound: a field cricket’s ears are actually on its legs; a horned lizard can (and does, here) squirt blood from its eyes as a defense mechanism; in an ingenious use of page design, a five-lined skink’s breakable tail enters and leaves the center gutter at different points. Capped by a systematic appendix furnishing more, and often arresting, details—“A humpback whale can be 50 feet long and weigh a ton per foot”—this array of wide eyes and open mouths will definitely have viewers responding with wide eyes and open mouths of their own. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 24, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-25628-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Shannon (April Showers, 1995, etc.) has created an alphabet book that demands of readers imaginative, often arbitrary leaps, from what is to what will be. ``B is for eggs—tomorrow's BIRDS'' and ``R is for grapes—tomorrow's RAISINS.'' Wheat to flour, clay to pot, caterpillar to moth: Most of the letter play will spark recognition, but the associations of a few are fairly oblique for ABC readers. A is for seed, which becomes an apple, but that's a mighty long botanical road; G sits next to bulbs that become a garden, even though it looks more like a simple cluster of daffodils. ``U is for stranger—tomorrow's US'' will have a lot of little wheels spinning in vain, and the distance between ``X is for foot—tomorrow's X-RAY'' is almost unbridgeable. Crews brings to each page his elemental, suggestive brushwork: ketchup that is thick and rich and hard to shake out of the bottle, water that is splashy and cold. (Picture book. 5+)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-13504-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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