Simplistic science with appealing illustrations and a catchy text.
A simple text slowly adds members of a marsh food chain, “House That Jack Built”–style, from mud to raptors.
A serene double-page spread with vivid sunrise colors and an early morning mist proclaims: “This is the marsh / in the middle of the meadow.” Equally artistically enticing pages follow, with: “This is the mucky mud / On the bottom of the marsh / In the middle of the meadow.” The text continues in the tradition of a cumulative folk rhyme, using colorful language that complements the vibrant art. “This is the big eagle / That swoops from up high / To grasp the fish / That gulp down the tadpoles / That slurp up the minnows….” Even at its very longest, the cumulative rhyme ends with “the reeds / That grow in the mucky mud / On the bottom of the marsh / In the middle of the meadow.” The fairly sophisticated content and vocabulary seem ill-suited to the nursery-rhyme format, begging the question of audience. As with many food-chain explanations aimed at children, the producer and consumer parts are well-developed, and the decomposers receive no mention. Is this because the decomposers would have to eat the dead remains from the other categories, and live eaglets are more appealing than anything dead? This is understandable, but it seems to force the audience to a younger range than the recommended early-elementary children.
Simplistic science with appealing illustrations and a catchy text. (author’s notes, glossary) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58536-958-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
An intimate encounter with nature lit not just by stars and fireflies, but also an affecting dose of daddy-daughter warmth.
On a summer’s night, a child sails out into her yard to gather (and then release) lightning bugs.
Just like the stars that seem to wink and glimmer in Snyder’s moonlit, mist-streaked night skies, fireflies glow in the grass amid scattered trees and flowers. They smile in close-up views as the child, barefoot and nightgown-clad, gently gathers them into a big jar while her father looks on. Reflecting that “I love catching fireflies, / but they are not mine,” she cups each captive in her hand before “easy and slow, / I whisper good-bye, / then I let it go!” A spread of firefly facts caps the idyllic nighttime foray. Rough sparkly patches on the jacket add a tactile element that compensates, at least in part, for inner flaps that cover parts of the endpaper nightscapes. The bugs and brushwork resemble Eric Carle’s, but Snyder’s art works its own magic.
An intimate encounter with nature lit not just by stars and fireflies, but also an affecting dose of daddy-daughter warmth. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60905-291-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Blue Apple
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
Although the underlying idea is that resistance to change is normal—and acceptance of change is healthy—an easier sell would...
Rabbit is apprehensive about winter turning to spring, and his friends Mouse, Bird and Bear help convince him that spring is equally wonderful.
Rabbit’s concerns run from not having snow to play in and find his friends’ footprints in to how bad Bear smells when he wakes up from hibernation to unpredictable rain showers to longer days: “I am a cranky bunny when I don’t get enough sleep!” There is a cute surprise at the end, when Rabbit offers his own solution to his thirst, brought on by spring’s warmer weather. In a pleasing nod to young readers’ enjoyment, the text makes good use of repetition and pattern; each time Rabbit protests spring with the expression, “The thing about spring is…,” one friend counters the claim, and another says, “me too” or “me three.” The animals are appealing in their appearances and in their obvious devotion to one another—even to the Eeyore-like Rabbit. Children from northern climes, where even those who love snow and ice are excited by spring, may find it difficult to feel empathy for Rabbit, whose cartoonlike bunny face has a perpetual look of angst until the end.
Although the underlying idea is that resistance to change is normal—and acceptance of change is healthy—an easier sell would have been an animal who dreaded the cold and dark of winter. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1492-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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