A good start for budding naturalists, leading naturally to more populous surveys such as Jinny Johnson’s Atlas of Animals...
A select cast of animals—many on or under flaps and shaped pages—poses in seven characteristic habitats.
Printed on sturdy stock, the painted galleries, inset flaps, spinners, and a closing pop-up mountain will stand up to the heavy use it invites. In natural settings ranging from rain forest and desert to both fresh and salt water, Wren places realistically depicted wildlife (many of the creatures looking directly at viewers) in groups that leave plenty of room for Pang’s identifying labels and sometimes-arresting comments: “The slow-moving sloth visits the forest floor just once a week to do a poo”; “Don’t mess with the meat-eating piranha and its razor-sharp teeth!”; “BEAVER: This little feller cuts down trees with its sharp teeth.” Some of the animals, such as the giant desert hairy scorpion, the panther chameleon, and a regal tiger, are particularly memorable. Inset booklets offer further introductions to, for instance, “Bugs” or “Creatures of the Deep,” and cutout windows with spinners show stages of frog and butterfly metamorphoses. Aside from a confusing use of the term “hemisphere” in the introductory spread, the information is dependable if light for the overall word count.
A good start for budding naturalists, leading naturally to more populous surveys such as Jinny Johnson’s Atlas of Animals (2013). (Informational pop-up book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-944530-03-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: 360 Degrees
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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