A rather flat compilation of tree and forest legends and myths accompanied by stolid illustrations.
Myths and legends surrounding trees and forests make up this picture book.
Seventeen tree species from around the world and four forests (Madagascar’s Alley, or Avenue, of the Baobabs, Sherwood Forest, the Amazon rainforest, and the Black Forest) are introduced to readers via the myths and legends associated with them. Each double-page spread features a substantial illustration accompanied by text that includes a brief notation about the height of the tree in metric units (or trees in the case of the forest entries) and notes whether it is deciduous or evergreen as well as other qualities before relaying the myth or legend associated with it. Several of the entries read like (and are remarkably similar to) the Wikipedia entries on the same subjects. Illustrator Alonso’s color illustrations, in a bright but hardly nature-hued palette, have a stylized, silk-screened look. With their flat shapes and saturated color, they come across as quite heavy and impassive. While several illustrations depict people of many ethnicities and cultures, some don’t illustrate the tree the text is addressing, which may be frustrating to readers who may not know what, say, a hawthorn tree looks like. The book’s final illustration, a double-page spread, does show and label each tree in a forestlike arrangement, which is handy for height and spatial comparison.
A rather flat compilation of tree and forest legends and myths accompanied by stolid illustrations. (Picture book/folklore. 5-10)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-42-3
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature.
In a new entry in the Over and Under series, a paddleboarder glimpses humpback whales leaping, floats over a populous kelp forest, and explores life on a beach and in a tide pool.
In this tale inspired by Messner’s experiences in Monterey Bay in California, a young tan-skinned narrator, along with their light-skinned mom and tan-skinned dad, observes in quiet, lyrical language sights and sounds above and below the sea’s serene surface. Switching perspectives and angles of view and often leaving the family’s red paddleboards just tiny dots bobbing on distant swells, Neal’s broad seascapes depict in precise detail bat stars and anchovies, kelp bass, and sea otters going about their business amid rocky formations and the swaying fronds of kelp…and, further out, graceful moon jellies and—thrillingly—massive whales in open waters beneath gliding pelicans and other shorebirds. After returning to the beach at day’s end to search for shells and to spot anemones and decorator crabs, the child ends with nighttime dreams of stars in the sky meeting stars in the sea. Appended nature notes on kelp and 21 other types of sealife fill in details about patterns and relationships in this rich ecosystem. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More thoughtful, sometimes exhilarating encounters with nature. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79720-347-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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