A tight little collection of verse with a purpose.
Who lives in the wetlands? This collection offers 18 short poetical answers.
“The salamander and her kin / sneak around in slimy skin, / and as for status, live within / the family amphibian.” Readers also learn their blood is cold and they live on pond and land. The frog poem is a rhyming list of nicknames that give clues to their habits. Some poems offer less information than others. The dragonfly and its metamorphosis are smartly described in an almost-haiku, whereas the turtle is merely compared to a capsized boat. Readers learn what a raccoon eats and that ducks don’t mind the rain. The snail has “A helmet home / upon her back, / a head, / a tail, / a silvery track. / A single foot / to scoot along, / without a whispered word / or song.” Garter snakes, diving beetles, herons, the cattail, and the fiddlehead all get a page or two of short-lined rhyming text. Harper’s watercolors in washes of greens and yellows or with realistic wetland backdrops show mostly realistic flora and fauna (the beaver and otters are a bit anthropomorphized) in fine detail. The absence of aftermatter or supplemental information limits its flexibility.
A tight little collection of verse with a purpose. (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61067-747-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This genuinely clever math book uses rhyming couplets and riddles, as well as visual cues to help the reader find new ways to group numbers for quick counting. It’s a return to number sets, with none of those boring parentheses and <>signs. Here the rhyme gives a clue to the new ways of grouping numbers. For example: “Mama mia, pizza pie, / How many mushrooms do you spy? / Please don’t count them, it’s too slow, / This hot pie was made to go! / Let me give you some advice, / Just do half and count it twice.” A quick look at the pizza, and the reader can see each slice has the same number of mushrooms. Count by threes for half the pie, and double it. Each rhyme is given a double-page spread. The extra-large, brightly colored images leap off the page but never distract from the author’s intent. Some riddles are very challenging, but the author provides all the solutions in the back. Once the reader has seen the answers, the strategy is obvious and can be applied to other situations. Great fun for math enthusiasts and creative thinkers, this might also teach adults some new tricks. A winning addition. (Nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-21033-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
An inspirational look at one girl’s quest to make sure that all skin tones are visible and available in the classroom.
A Black girl’s simple observation propels her into activism.
Woodard, who launched the More Than Peach Project—which arranges for classrooms and children in need to receive kits that include art supplies and boxes of multicultural crayons (crayons in a variety of skin tones)—relates the incident that sparked her journey. As the book begins, she is dropped off at school and notices that her family’s skin tone differs from that of her classmates. While it is clear that she is one of a few children of color at school, that difference isn’t really felt until her friends start asking for the “skin-color” crayon when they mean peach. She’s bothered that no one else seems to notice that skin comes in many colors, so she devises a unique way of bringing everyone’s attention to that fact. With support from her family and her school, she encourages her fellow classmates to rethink their language and starts an initiative to ensure that everyone’s skin tone is represented in each crayon box. Appealing, realistic artwork depicts Woodard’s experiences, while endpapers feature More Than Peach crayon boxes and childlike illustrations of kids of different ethnicities doing various activities. The story is stirring and will motivate budding activists. (This book was reviewed digitally; the review has been updated for factual accuracy.)
An inspirational look at one girl’s quest to make sure that all skin tones are visible and available in the classroom. (note from Woodard, information on Woodard’s journey into activism, instructions on starting a drive) (Picture-book biography. 6-10)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-80927-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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