A good idea with execution that leaves much to be desired.
This first picture book by novelist Prendergast (Pandas on the East Side, 2016, etc.) explains the relative sizes of the planets in our solar system.
Two children camp out in a backyard, a black child with cornrows and afro puffs and a white child with freckles and glasses. Armed with a book about the solar system, they explore Pluto’s status as a dwarf planet by using the refrain “if Pluto was a pea” as a point of comparison. Each spread compares a pea-sized Pluto to another object in the solar system. “The sun would be a tent”; “Mercury would be a marble”; etc. The final comparison is to smaller objects—Pluto’s three moons. On each spread, the newly named object appears, sometimes with the last object or a pea in the picture too. In the digital illustrations, the background alternates among the night sky, the inside of the tent, and simple white space; the last unfortunately detracts from the cohesive feeling of the story as a cozy campout. An effort is made to keep the objects in proper proportion; this is not always the case though, and the inconsistency can cause confusion. Both metric and English measurements are given for each item for the mathematically minded; as the text is stolidly repetitive, it’s hard to imagine other sorts of readers for it.
A good idea with execution that leaves much to be desired. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0435-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
Entertaining and informative.
Why do humans make blood, if not for thirsty vampires?
McAnulty teams up with illustrator Tenney to follow up her Brains! Not Just a Zombie Snack (2021) with a closer look at blood—specifically, human blood. Two movie-style vampires (pointy ears, widow’s peaks, and prominent canine teeth) engage in a funny yet edifying discussion about this essential liquid. The taller, older, purplish vampire, amusingly dressed in a pinstripe suit, really just wants to drink someone’s blood. They’ve walked from their spooky hilltop castle and bellied up to the bar at the “I Don’t Vant To Suck Your Blood Smoothie Shop,” having misread what’s on offer. To the older vampire’s dismay, the younger, shorter, rounder, blue-skinned one states that blood is more important to humans and belongs “in the cardiovascular systems” rather than in smoothie blenders. The little vampire clearly describes why blood is essential for human bodies; how it moves around the body via arteries, arterioles, and capillaries; what’s in it (white and red blood cells, plasma, and platelets); and what these components do (white blood cells fight disease). The tall vampire’s increasing disappointment is hilarious, but by the time the lively explanation is complete, they seem fairly sanguine about choosing a delicious, nonblood, chocolate milkshake. An author’s note emphasizes the importance of donating blood, and backmatter offers several intriguing facts about blood. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Entertaining and informative. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-30405-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
A quiet and beautiful celebration of an elusive, underappreciated, and often threatened natural resource.
Swamps can be subtly spectacular, if you know where to look and what to see.
This addition to Messner’s and Neal’s successful Over and Under series sees readers through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Florida. Dark-haired “Grandma” and a skirt-wearing child “wander, through curtains of green,” on a boardwalk. What lives in the subtropical wilderness beneath and above them? Many, many animals populate this “secret kingdom”: a barred owl and pig frog; a painted bunting, red-bellied woodpecker, and red-shouldered hawk (one page is devoted to their various sounds); a black-crowned night heron, banded water snake, and cottonmouth; a dazzling white egret, and roseate spoonbills eating small fry; a swamp lily and red-bellied turtle, the latter immediately snapped up in the jaws of an alligator; a strangler fig hugging a cypress; a raccoon family; a swallow-tailed kite and mosquito fish; anhinga, Florida panther, ghost orchid, and sphinx moth. The pages that follow provide detailed information on the habits, appearance, features, and contributions of each named member of the ecosystem, as well as additional information about the specific sanctuary depicted. Neal’s delicate, colorful, and accurate mixed-media art invites readers to linger. The images, without lines or shadows, bring the hidden wetland world right before readers’ eyes.
A quiet and beautiful celebration of an elusive, underappreciated, and often threatened natural resource. (further reading) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781797210872
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
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