A well-written book in the Native American series, covering the Inuit of northern and western Alaska and the northern coast of Canada, and providing a colorful and educational sketch of their habitat and lifestyle. Fleischner (The Apaches, 1994, not reviewed) quickly recaps the 5,000-year history of the Inuit, then describes in detail the traditional housing, clothing, hunts, rituals, feasts, and so on; readers need not be researching or have any prior interest in the subject to be drawn into the book, which is filled with full-color and black-and-white photographs. The only flaw—no map—becomes more significant as the author steadily emphasizes the European exploration of the Canadian shore. A charming fable follows the main text. (chronology, glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56294-587-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Excessively enlarged, overdramatic color photos and a rather lurid text will attract readers to this oversize book, but the whole is unsatisfying even as an introduction to jungle layers, wildlife, people, and the implications of deforestation. The photos may appear to be almost three-dimensional, but they are poorly placed. Some are lost in the gutter: in one double spread, the head of a scarlet macaw appears to be growing out of the wing of a fruit bat. Scientific names and size information are not given (is the tailless whip scorpion really huge, or just extremely enlarged in the photo?), and often intriguing facts (flying snakes, fuzzy- tongued parakeets) are undocumented. Marginal. Index. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-385-41412-9
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A clear, visually attractive introduction by the author of several fine nature titles. Carefully describing the special features that help the cacti survive dry environments (e.g., accordion-pleated skin that expands without splitting), Lerner makes a strong plea for conservation and notes that there is at least one species native to every state except Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Her illustrations are detailed and carefully drawn, though scale is not given; scientific names appear in the back. Useful and unusually well written. Glossary; limited index (omitting some species, e.g., night-blooming cereus, described at length in the text). (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-09636-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
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