Combining visual verve with a sense of our worldwide connectedness, this both teaches and entertains.
A playful subversion of animal abecedaries.
Heck plumbs 68 non-English languages for 26 animal names that begin with different letters or sounds than their English counterparts. Thus, “G is for Cat” for speakers of Spanish (gato), Ojibwe (gaazhagens), and Korean (goyangi). I is for fish, O for eagle, and S for Lion. Frequent last-place-holder zebra is under V here—“Varikkutirai,” in Tamil. Heck includes languages spanning the globe, including those of several Native American tribes. As she explains in her author’s note, some of the represented languages with non-Roman alphabets or alternate writing systems are transliterated to represent the sounds that speakers make when saying the animal name. Against richly colored backgrounds, the black-and-white scratchboard illustrations dramatically employ contrast and texture. Hand-lettered display type enhances the visual drama and zestfully celebrates the multiplicity of animal names. Cleverly, each letter is hidden somewhere in the composition of its illustrated page, adding an A-to-Z seek-and-find element for children. Readers are also invited to use publisher-supplied links to hear native or fluent speakers pronounce the animal names. An alphabetized index links the languages to their respective letter(s). Cultural or geographical addenda might have further enhanced children’s understanding of this package’s truly global nexus. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Combining visual verve with a sense of our worldwide connectedness, this both teaches and entertains. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64614-127-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fuzzy on biological specifics but sings a buoyant message about how they make us the same for all our differences.
A rhymed celebration of human individuality within our genetic commonality.
In simple language, media personality Davis and Tyler (The Skin You Live In, 2005) highlight twin notions, one biophysical, the other more conceptual: We all share “billions and billions of tiny gene-dots,” but there is just one dot each that makes us who we are—“Your me-my-mine dot is the who that is ‘You.’ It’s what gives us a hint and a colorful clue / About why you look the way that you do, and why your dot has your only-you hue.” Because that unique dot, the authors go on to claim, governs not only skin color, but facial features, eye color, food preferences, and behavioral tendencies, it actually represents not a single gene but entire chromosomal constellations and even perhaps some epigenetic influences. Still, if this leaves some confusion in its wake that will need later instruction to clear up, the point that for all our “different faces and bodies and names” we are “still 99.9% the same” is a good one to make early and often. Fleming sweetens the presentation even more with a thoroughly diverse cast of, mostly, romping, dancing, and playing children (some of whom use wheelchairs) with outsized heads and big, widely set eyes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fuzzy on biological specifics but sings a buoyant message about how they make us the same for all our differences. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780310748809
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Weak on the math but should interest a number of wild animal lovers.
Giraffes by the numbers.
“Giraffe numbers are everywhere,” coos twiggy Twiga, giraffe narrator, who goes on to lay out typical measurements for their bodies and select parts, from ossicones atop their heads (“They can reach a length of over 10 inches. If you’re seven or eight years old, that is almost the length of your arm”) to pizza-pie–sized hooves. Along with other number-based nuggets like speed, she names the four giraffe species (reticulated, Masai, southern, and northern)—distinguishable in Valério’s paint and paper collage scenes by their patterns of spots—and mentions predators, diet, social behavior, and other basic non-numerate facts. The “math” is more notional than exact as, for instance, schematic lines show how the stiff-legged postures of drinking giraffes form equilateral or isosceles triangles, but the difference between the two is not explained. Also, a reference to “percentages” at the end may be confusing, since neither the word nor the symbol is used elsewhere. Invitations to compare measurements with those of other animals remain an abstract exercise, as the accompanying illustrations are not consistently to scale. The backmatter includes a range map and a note on the giraffe life cycle. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Weak on the math but should interest a number of wild animal lovers. (glossary, quiz, metric conversion chart, further reading) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9780316346771
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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