Art meets biology, with weird and beautiful results.
An elaborate photographic process that brings out every bizarre detail and shimmering nuance of color turns 14 insects into lambent “miniature monsters."
Culled from the photographer’s book for adults Microsculpture (2017), the photos of the preserved specimens could just as well have been chosen as much for their subjects’ names—branch-backed treehopper, splendid-necked dung beetle, orchid cuckoo bee—as for their fantastically baroque features and oily hues. The original portraits, stitched together from thousands of photos and blown up to 10 feet (tall or wide, depending on orientation) for a traveling museum exhibit, must be jaw-dropping. Even here they seem to glimmer with thrillingly menacing, heavily armored elegance on their solid black pages, undisturbed by the labeled side views and details that accompany them. Along with describing Biss’ process and marveling at the sheer numberof insect species in the world, Mone offers succinct observations about each selection’s features and habits, tucks in a mini-disquisition on insect setae (“hair-like bits”), and tries (a little too hard) to lighten the mood: “If [potter wasp males] were human dads, they’d probably just sit around watching football and belching.” His suggestion to dazzled readers that after viewing these “fast, creepy, sneaky, smart, and sometimes a little nasty” creatures “you’ll never look at the insects in your backyard the same way again” is well taken, though. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Art meets biology, with weird and beautiful results. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3166-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A quick flight but a blast from first to last.
A charged-up roundup of astro-facts.
Having previously explored everything awesome about both dinosaurs (2019) and sharks (2020), Lowery now heads out along a well-traveled route, taking readers from the Big Bang through a planet-by-planet tour of the solar system and then through a selection of space-exploration highlights. The survey isn’t unique, but Lowery does pour on the gosh-wow by filling each hand-lettered, poster-style spread with emphatic colors and graphics. He also goes for the awesome in his selection of facts—so that readers get nothing about Newton’s laws of motion, for instance, but will come away knowing that just 65 years separate the Wright brothers’ flight and the first moon landing. They’ll also learn that space is silent but smells like burned steak (according to astronaut Chris Hadfield), that thanks to microgravity no one snores on the International Space Station, and that Buzz Aldrin was the first man on the moon…to use the bathroom. And, along with a set of forgettable space jokes (OK, one: “Why did the carnivore eat the shooting star?” “Because it was meteor”), the backmatter features drawing instructions for budding space artists and a short but choice reading list. Nods to Katherine Johnson and NASA’s other African American “computers” as well as astronomer Vera Rubin give women a solid presence in the otherwise male and largely White cast of humans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A quick flight but a blast from first to last. (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-35974-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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