Thoroughly engaging and filled with intriguing facts.
Flo, a talking glacier, narrates its journey to the ocean in this picture book.
Flo, whose voice is sociable and chirpy, is the perfect vehicle to inform readers about the hows and whys of glacial formation and movement in an accessible, often amusing way. The book’s ingenuity doesn’t stop there. Inhabiting the margins of the pages, as it would inhabit the interior of a glacier, the flat black silhouette of a knowledgeable ice worm gives succinct, clear facts about glaciers: “As snow piles on a glacier, the weight presses air out, compacting the snow into dense ice.” The ice worm’s facts are printed in a much smaller font than Flo’s narration and seem designed for adults to interpret to young readers. The ice worm’s facts are just enough to intrigue but not overwhelm readers, just as anthropomorphizing Flo connects readers empathetically. Illustrator Brereton’s flat, stylized illustrations—some approaching abstract design—may not reinforce this connection, but what they do achieve is to give an impression of hardness and solidity (as befits a glacier); warm and cool colors are used to advantage to create the effect of changing seasons. Backmatter offers additional facts about glaciers, discusses climate change (a little proselytizing here about how readers can help), and, finally, since readers will be itching to know, explains what’s the deal with ice worms (yes, they are real).
Thoroughly engaging and filled with intriguing facts. (further reading) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5132-6230-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: West Margin Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
So rocket science can be fun.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
If they haven’t already thought about their futures (and they probably haven’t), toddlers and preschoolers might start planning after perusing this cheerful first guide to scientific careers. Plump-cheeked, wide-eyed tykes with various skin and hair colors introduce different professions, including zoologist, meteorologist, aerospace engineer, and environmental scientist, depicted with cues to tip readers off to what the jobs entail. The simple text presents the sometimes-long, tongue-twisting career names while helpfully defining them in comprehensible terms. For example, an environmental scientist “helps take care of our world,” and a zoologist is defined as someone who “studies how animals behave.” Scientists in general are identified as those who “study, learn, and solve problems.” Such basic language not only benefits youngsters, but also offers adults sharing the book easy vocabulary with which to expand on conversations with kids about the professions. The title’s ebullient appearance is helped along by the typography: The jobs’ names are set in all caps, printed in color and in a larger font than the surrounding text, and emphasized with exclamation points. Additionally, the buoyant watercolors feature clues to what scientists in these fields work with, such as celestial bodies for astronomers. The youngest listeners won’t necessarily get all of this, but the book works as a rudimentary introduction to STEM topics and a shoutout to scientific endeavors.
So rocket science can be fun. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62354-149-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
An understated, useful primer on one of nature’s miraculous cycles.
A piecemeal overview of the life cycle of a plant.
Using her signature minimalist prose and stripped-down art, Portis follows the journey of a sunflower seed from the moment it “settles into the soil” to its emergence as a blossom that eventually parents new sunflower plants. The entire text consists of one long sentence, broken up into fragments across the book’s spreads. Except for a few well-chosen double-page illustrations, the full-color artwork appears on the recto pages while the text appears on the verso pages. Readers watch as sunshine and rain help the seed grow into a bud and then a tall flower whose grandeur and height are accentuated by a switch from a horizontal page layout to a vertical one. The flower produces seeds, which are dispersed by birds after they feed, beginning the process of new plant growth all over again. The book offers a close-up look at plant reproduction using simple, accessible language that preschoolers can understand. Youngsters will feel a sense of awe as they witness the magic of a seed’s first tender shoot and the symbiosis of nature. The backmatter uses spot art to highlight the parts of a sunflower seed and plant and four things that “the seed needs to sprout”; it also includes a diagram of the sunflower’s life cycle.
An understated, useful primer on one of nature’s miraculous cycles. (Informational picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4892-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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