Aiming for wide eyes and exclamations of “Cool!” MacLeod presents 19 prehistoric fliers and gliders from Titanus (“known as the Terror Bird or Killer Crane”) to Argentavis (“wing tip to wing tip, it stretched longer than a minivan”). Along with picking up a few basic speculations about how each probably got around on land, air and water—and what they most likely ate, of course—young dino fans will get a gander at what they may have looked like in Bindon’s naturalistic scenes as, bodies covered in hair or feathers painted with subdued colors and patterns, the winged monsters generally pose with mouths agape as they patrol for or chase down prey. A closing spread of silhouettes done to scale (with a pair of human figures down in one corner) sets this apart, slightly, from a plethora of similar albums like Don Lessem’s Flying Giants of Dinosaur Time (2005), also illustrated (differently) by Bindon. (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55453-199-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Pumpkin Book (32 pp.; $16.95; Sept. 15; 0-8234-1465-5): From seed to vine and blossom to table, Gibbons traces the growth cycle of everyone’s favorite autumn symbol—the pumpkin. Meticulous drawings detail the transformation of tiny seeds to the colorful gourds that appear at roadside stands and stores in the fall. Directions for planting a pumpkin patch, carving a jack-o’-lantern, and drying the seeds give young gardeners the instructions they need to grow and enjoy their own golden globes. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1465-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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