Produced as a companion to an exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, this handsomely designed album pairs photographed fossils and speculative but realistically detailed portraits of hundreds of creatures—nearly all extinct—with descriptive captions and short passages of text that draw connections between them and modern animals. With frequent pauses for side looks at the idea of natural selection, the spectacular array of specimens found at Fossil Lake, Wyo., and other special topics, the smooth narrative moves chronologically from the Cambrian period to the first appearances of Homo sapiens and ice-age mammals. The authors also discuss possible causes for each of five periodic mass extinctions, from the one that brought the Ordovician Period to an end about 450 million years ago to the one that’s happening now. The large but digestible volume of information (lovers of polysyllabic names in particular will be in hog heaven) along with a coherent overview of life’s development on our planet combine to boost this above the general run of prehistory panoramas. (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9486-7
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
From Kroll (Lewis and Clark, 1994, etc.), a handsomely illustrated biography that introduces a fascinating historical figure and will make readers yearn for more information. The facts are covered, including Fulton’s stints as sign painter, air-gun inventor, and apprentice jeweler; Kroll states clearly which details cannot be pinned down, and the probable order of events and incidents. The text is informative and lively, although in places the transitions are abrupt, e.g., one of the only references to Fulton’s personal life—“Meanwhile, on January 7, 1808, Fulton had married Harriet Livingston. She bore him four children”—quickly reverts to details on the building of boats. Warm gold-toned paintings convey a sense of times past and complement the text. Especially appealing are the depictions of the steamships. A welcome volume. (chronology) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
Pub Date: March 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1433-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
Updike has revised a set of 12 short poems, one per month, first published in 1965, and Hyman’s busy, finely detailed scenes replace the original edition’s illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. The verses are written in a child’s voice—“The chickadees/Grow plump on seed/That Mother pours/Where they can feed”—and commemorate seasonal weather, flowers, food, and holidays. In the paintings a multiracial, all-ages cast does the same in comfortable, semi-rural New England surroundings, sitting at a table cutting out paper hearts, wading through reeds with a net under a frog’s watchful eye, picnicking, contemplating a leafless tree outside for “November” and a decorated one inside for “December.” The thoughts and language are slightly elevated but not beyond the ken of children, and the pictures enrich the poetry with specific, often amusing, incidents. (Poetry. 6-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1445-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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