Robust material to get the next generation of environmentalists on the right path.
What is recycling? Why and how should we do it?
Romer, a lawyer, sustainability expert, and plastic bag foe, published a comprehensive and well-received guidebook to recycling for adults in 2021. Now she and her illustrator return with this lively edition aimed at young readers. In a conversational voice, she explains the need for recycling—to conserve natural resources and avoid contributing to our garbage problem. Romer clearly explains the process, describing the procedure and equipment used in big recycling centers. Even with all the sorting and smashing, not all the potentially recyclable materials will be reused—a business must want to buy them. In order for the plastic to be reused, the materials will need to be melted, extruded into strips, and cut into tiny pieces called nurdles, the basis for new plastic things. Finally, Romer provides extensive examples of what can and cannot be recycled, depending on the facility, and what readers might use instead of single-use plastic. Here, she returns to her long-running campaign against plastic bags. Plastic bags recycled at grocery stores do have a market, but her advice to bring your own bag is still sound. All of this is engagingly illustrated with Young’s amusing spot images; the depictions of anthropomorphized bottles, cereal boxes, and other items brim with personality. There are plenty of books about recycling for this audience but few with such instant appeal. (This book was reviewed digitally; this review has been updated for accuracy.)
Robust material to get the next generation of environmentalists on the right path. (author’s note, further resources, glossary) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-20407-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.
A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.
Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5625-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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