A delight to browse, the book also provides resources to further engage budding ornithologists.
An album of North American birds from a Brazilian-Canadian illustrator.
“I love the variety of birds, their colored feathers and their sense of freedom,” writes Valério in an introduction, and that affection is clear in this striking collection. The illustrations are collage, crafted from “old magazine paper, art paper, [and] gift wrap,” and though stylized, the birds are readily distinguishable. An osprey dominates one double-page spread, carrying a fish back to its nest across a heartbreakingly blue backdrop. Its paper components are clean-edged, layered in a fashion that both replicates the osprey’s distinctive markings and evokes individual feathers. The bird’s wing feathers are arranged with glimpses of blue between, giving a strong sense of airiness and loft. Each bird is labeled with both its common and Latin names, with a straightforward gloss that describes salient features and, often, another that provides a fascinating tidbit. In the case of the osprey, it’s on how the bird’s talons grip its prey. The book’s overall organization is haphazard—the golden eagle, the pelican, the osprey, and three types of swallow occupy the first four double-page spreads—but several spreads group bird families together; in addition to the swallows (purple martin, violet-green swallow, and barn swallow), the blue jay, the black-billed magpie, and the Steller’s jay appear together, as do five different types of warbler, for instance.
A delight to browse, the book also provides resources to further engage budding ornithologists. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-16)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55498-800-6
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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