Mixing such chestnuts as “There Is No Frigate Like a Book” and “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” with less common expostulations (“Will there really be a ‘Morning’? / Is there such a thing as ‘Day’?), Winter (My Baby, 2001, etc.) presents a quick but complex taste of a quick but complex poet. To the 22 carefully selected poems, the artist pairs simply drawn folk-art scenes of a white-gowned figure ruminatively observing outdoor settings, and sandwiches it all with an invented narrative from Emily’s sister, Lavinia, that fills in a bit of background about the poet’s cloistered life. Though the verses are not only printed in a “handwritten” italic, but also placed so that it’s sometimes hard to tell where one poem leaves off and the next begins, this small tribute effectively captures a sense of Dickinson’s precise language and wide-open imagination. Great potential as a keepsake and a lovely introduction for younger readers. (Poetry. 6-12)
Pub Date: March 19, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-32147-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Tender to tongue-in-cheek, a broad showcase for a versatile writer.
A compact gathering of new verse on diverse topics, from a British poet born in Jamaica.
Within thematic groupings, Bloom writes of children newly born or bored (“Family and Friends”), of erupting volcanoes (“Our World”), of extinct animals (“Animals”), and of dreams (“Unbelievable?”). In the family section, a child muses on her parents, who are apparently at odds: “They say that they’ll always / Love me forever. / I only wish / They could love me together.” Another section, titled “Fun With Forms,” offers samples of an elfje and of skeltonic verse among more familiar constructions—but, alas, there is no explication of these. Though her casual approach to rhyming and metrics does result in some stumbles (“Once I held inside my palms / the curviness of a bow, / and listened in the cornfield / to the sadness of a scarecrow”), the selections offer a range of moods and some choice wordplay to boot, like this from “Praying Mantis”: “Before a meal, what it will say / Is not ‘Bless this food’ but ‘Let us prey’.” The child on the cover and many of the human figures in the illustrations that accompany nearly every poem are people of color. Outside of anthologies, very little of the veteran poet’s work has made it to the States, so count this for most U.S. readers an unjustly tardy introduction.
Tender to tongue-in-cheek, a broad showcase for a versatile writer. (Poetry. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-91307-467-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Inspiration for nature-loving children.
If you’re a child who collects nature’s treasures, you’re in good company.
This cleverly conceived and appealingly executed title addresses young readers directly, connecting their noticing and collecting habits to those of others who continued to observe, collect, and organize in adulthood. Montgomery introduces a grandly diverse array of nine naturalists, researchers, and explorers from Maria Sibylla Merian, who studied butterflies in the 17th century, to Bonnie Lei, whose present-day research focuses on sea-life conservation. Three are people of color, and the majority are female. The young George Washington Carver collected seed pods; deep-sea explorer William Beebe collected birds’ eggs; and young Jane Goodall put worms under her pillow! Other profiles include Charles Darwin, tree-canopy explorer Margaret Lowman, herpetologist Diego Cisneros-Heredia, and fossil hunter Mary Anning. The vignettes from childhood are engaging, well paced, and smoothly told. Short introductions to the adult scientists follow, in a smaller font. In her author’s note, the writer introduces the concept of naturalist intelligence. Lechuga’s friendly illustrations feature the brown-skinned girl with Afro puffs and overflowing pockets shown on the cover as well as the scientists as children, then as adults, in appropriate times and places. The backmatter includes more about the grown-up scientists and the author’s own sensible “rules for collecting,” which involve respect for nature, the people she lives with, and herself (safety). The illustrator reminds readers that habits of observation are something she also shares with scientists.
Inspiration for nature-loving children. (field guides, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62354-122-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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