For this collection of 30 poems, not only nursery rhymes but also familiar children's songs (“Yankee Doodle,” “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,” etc.) have been given new lyrics promoting energy conservation activities and healthy living. The author of Texas Mother Goose (2006) here teams up with the “green-minded” author of The Giant Carrot (1998) to produce a lively combination of parody and sound earth-saving suggestions. “Little Jack Horner / Changed bulbs in the corner” and “Hickety, Pickety, free-range hen” combine with a Mother Hubbard who “went to the market / To buy only local.” Their strong message is leavened by Berger’s whimsical, inventive illustrations, which lighten the tone. On varied backgrounds, including lined paper, surreal bird-people with skinny legs and round heads litter and recycle, plant gardens, tend bees, hang laundry on the line and ride bicycles. Five little pig-people “re-re-recycle!” all the way home. Indeed, recycled materials, found papers and ephemera were used for these collages. Bits of text on the papers bear intriguing messages, use unusual fonts and languages and may be reversed. Some of the materials make connections: Mother Hubbard does, indeed, have a cloth shopping bag, and the gardener in "This is the Seed that Jack Sowed" is wearing denim overalls. These illustrations invite close inspection, while the poems will be welcomed in schools where going green is a value. (Poetry. 5-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6525-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lighthearted reminder of why we love the game.
Warm up and get in training for a full season of baseball poems.
Each verse focuses on one element of the game, from the baseball itself to the position players and hitters. Even the umpire has his moment. The 15 verses vary in length from eight to 16 lines, and all have strong rhythms that beg to be read with a bouncing lilt. Florian also plays with shapes and patterns of words, spacing "stretch" so it appears to do just that, and placing "leaps," "climbs" and "plummets" in their appropriate orientations. He creates some delightful phrases in "Pitcher," who is “the starter of slumps,” and “the strikeout collector.” But he also misses the mark with several rhymes and images that seem forced and clumsy. There’s little new or surprising here, but the poems generally capture the joy of boys and girls playing just for the love of the game. The introductory poems that begin the season share a page opening, while each subsequent poem has its own double-page spread with an exaggerated, elongated figure on the greens and sands of a baseball field. Rendered in a mix of gouache watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils and pine tar (how apt!) on primed paper bags, the illustrations appear textured and touchable, with a childlike quality.
A lighthearted reminder of why we love the game. (Picture book/ poetry. 6-9)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-68838-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
Bat lovers (or haters, for that matter) aren’t going to learn anything here that isn’t offered more clearly and with less...
A young bat explores cave ecology, squired by a pack rat with a flashlight.
In the gossamer-thin fictional overlay, little Baby Bat meets a pack rat named Pluribus who, with an illogical “We can use my flashlight and follow the scent trails I’ve made from room to room,” sets off on a tour. After encounters with a bird, a snake and the teeming residents of the guano-covered floor (“Wow, I had no idea that so many animals depend on us for food!”) Baby Bat crawls back up to the ceiling with a new appreciation for his—or at least his poop’s—importance. Pale, realistically drawn but indistinct insects and other cave creatures swarm across Bersani’s low-contrast colored-pencil illustrations, and the info-load is further expanded by several closing pages of additional information and discussion questions (“Are bats good or bad?”). An e-book version with extra features is also available.
Bat lovers (or haters, for that matter) aren’t going to learn anything here that isn’t offered more clearly and with less anthropomorphism elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-6071-8522-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sylvan Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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