by Jean Craighead George ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1971
The web of life is revealed in all its intricacy when Tony Isidoro, an eighth grader who has inherited the zoology project interrupted by his older brother's call to army service, works with the local mill owner's 12-year-old daughter, and later with his brother's zoologist friend from the college, to solve a murder that has baffled and grieved the town of Saddleboro. The case opens when the town's mayor, an opportunist who won election on an ecology platform, makes political capital and daily radio announcements — not to mention a gala Cock Robin Day picnic — of a family of robins that nests in his hat. When the robins embarrass him by dying, the mayor asks Tony to discover the cause; later the boy's investigations prove equally embarrassing, but Tony determinedly tracks down the culprits. His sleuthing reveals that the mayor's lawn fertilizer has polluted the local marsh, that mother robin and her eggs were done in by a chemical called PCB, released by the mill owner under orders from NASA and combined with DDT from an up-wind orchard and a weed killer called 2, 4, 5-T, and finally that Cock Robin himself was killed, true to the old song, by the sparrow — or at least by the chain set off when 10,000 Florida sparrows died from eating mercury-treated seeds, causing millions of blood-sucking parasitic flies to leave their bodies and attack the migrating robins. The tone of the whole adventure is buoyant, and the ecological complexities that constitute its theme are so neatly reflected in the plot that the scientific search for Cock Robin's murderer has an edge-of-the-chair excitement.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1971
ISBN: 0064404056
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1971
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by Jean Craighead George with Luke George & Twig George ; illustrated by Wendell Minor
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by Jean Craighead George ; illustrated by Wendell Minor
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by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo
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by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
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by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo
by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2019
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts
by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts
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