Robust insights into the often mind-bogglingly arduous journeys of animals all over the world.
The ins and outs of migration.
Animals move across vast landscapes, through the depths of the ocean, and through the air to get to their destinations. But why? And how? It’s a daunting subject that Brown tackles with aplomb, beginning with a friendly introduction that hints at the scale of migration and asks two crucial questions: “So why do it?” and “How does it work?” The book is organized by air, land, and sea migration, with a final section on “Navigating Change.” The first three sections detail the journeys undertaken by a wide variety of birds, mammals, fish, and other creatures on their quests to survive and perpetuate their species. The layouts are dynamic, with creative, action-packed scenes, and the information is plentiful—readers will learn that half of all birds take part in annual migrations and that salmon’s more than 2,500-km journey is so intense that 95% of them will die after spawning. Like many recent nature books, this one addresses the ways that light pollution, climate change, and habitat loss have forced animals to adapt. Brown makes clear that everything humans do impacts creatures all over the globe and also considers what we still don’t know about migration. Much ground (and water and air) is covered in 72 pages.
Robust insights into the often mind-bogglingly arduous journeys of animals all over the world. (glossary, animal index) (Nonfiction. 6-11)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781800660298
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Cicada Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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