Valuable exposure to an ancient and fundamental gardening principle.
Companion plants in a small garden demonstrate how they help keep one another happy, healthy, and safe from hungry beetles.
“Snuggle close, little bean,” says an adult gardener to a young child, “and let me tell you a story.” In the ensuing tale, the rooted residents of Companion Patch—from Mari the golden marigold to Tumble the sassy tomato—who have teamed up to provide shade, support, and other mutual benefits welcome the traditional Three Sisters: Squish the squash, Connie the corn, and Bobbie the bean. Crisis looms when pesky leaf-eating beetles descend, but a whispered word to a helpful bumblebee brings a rush of such “helpful herbs” as Nellie the nasturtium in to repel the invasion with “strong scents” and (unspecified) “clever tricks.” In keeping with the cutesy aesthetic, all the bugs and named fruits, roots, and flowers sport expressive faces with googly eyes in Gerrard’s brightly colored cartoon scenes. The anthropomorphism extends even to eyeglasses for some. “See?” says Mari, presenting an idyllic tangle of vegetal diversity at the end. “In Companion Patch, every plant has a place.” There’s a lesson there for all of us, Walton concludes, before bringing her sweetly informative tale to a close with a light sprinkle of companion planting basics. Human characters are pale-skinned.
Valuable exposure to an ancient and fundamental gardening principle. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 23, 2026
ISBN: 9781805704256
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Ivy Kids Eco/Quarto
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
An introduction to Venus that shows the planet at her most verbally and visually vivacious.
The solar system’s hottest diva struts her stuff.
The titular character’s claim that she’s the only goddess among the planetary gods may leave partisans of “Gaea” (technically not an official name, but still) feeling a little miffed. That aside, Venus still has plenty to crow about—from having higher surface temperatures than Mercury, to sporting a day that’s longer than her year, to spinning so the sun comes up in the west. Joining McAnulty’s other solar system soliloquies with the same engaging mix of facts and attitude (“Earth has clouds. I don’t…just have clouds. I’m smothered in them!”), Venus shines up from the page. She sports a proud expression on her broad face, whether hovering with windswept golden locks over a seashell like her Botticellian counterpart or floating in space, waving to her earthly and celestial fans with stubby limbs. Closing with a review quiz and a roundup of basic statistics, this animated planetary self-portrait will give young readers more reason than ever to pay proper attention to the brightest of our non-stellar astronomical neighbors.
An introduction to Venus that shows the planet at her most verbally and visually vivacious. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250334473
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Odd Dot
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so...
A pro bono Twinkie of a book invites readers to fly off in a magic plane to bring clean water to our planet’s oceans, deserts, and brown children.
Following a confusingly phrased suggestion beneath a soft-focus world map to “touch the Earth. Now touch where you live,” a shake of the volume transforms it into a plane with eyes and feathered wings that flies with the press of a flat, gray “button” painted onto the page. Pressing like buttons along the journey releases a gush of fresh water from the ground—and later, illogically, provides a filtration device that changes water “from yucky to clean”—for thirsty groups of smiling, brown-skinned people. At other stops, a tap on the button will “help irrigate the desert,” and touching floating bottles and other debris in the ocean supposedly makes it all disappear so the fish can return. The 20 children Coh places on a globe toward the end are varied of skin tone, but three of the four young saviors she plants in the flier’s cockpit as audience stand-ins are white. The closing poem isn’t so openly parochial, though it seldom rises above vague feel-good sentiments: “Love the Earth, the moon and sun. / All the children can be one.”
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so easy to clean the place up and give everyone a drink? (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2083-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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