The artwork is spectacular, but its factual content is not so well-presented.
Sparse, rhyming text and lush collages impart elementary facts about different animals’ body coverings.
The colors, shapes, and textures of the artwork are a glorious complement to the simple, nicely scanning, just-barely-informational text. A set of speckled feathers stretching over the title pages is revealed to be the tail feathers of an awesome, pheasantlike bird spread over the next two pages. The text states, in bright, large letters against a green background, “Some animals wear feathers.” A monkey leaps across the next pages, with the bold text: “Some animals wear hair.” An aerial view of a porcupine’s quills finishes the verse with “Some animals wear prickly spines / and roam without a care.” The art invites gazing and revisiting—especially the four pages devoted to a chameleon of psychedelic coloration. The final verse and illustration of a giggling, brown-skinned child in the bathtub will delight most toddlers—who are still entranced by differences between humans and other animals—but limit the book’s appeal to older readers. The endnotes name each animal in its order of appearance and supplement the primary text with scientific facts. However, the absence of a glossary leaves it up to adult readers to define such terms as “mammal,” “reptile,” “gills,” “crustacean,” “mollusk,” and “amphibian.”
The artwork is spectacular, but its factual content is not so well-presented. (Informational picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3081-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Good, good book! (Picture book. 2-5)
Why is Bear so mad?
Readers first encounter Bear in his bedroom, scowling. A flashback (unusual in picture books) explains that he’s mad because he “was the first one to have to leave the park for a nap.” The accompanying art shows Bear being led off the recto and looking back longingly at other cubs on a playground. The text then explains that he tripped and “got an owie on the way home. And then he had to take off his boots and leave his favorite stick outside.” This understated, sympathetic text is extended and enhanced by Gee’s expressive, downright cuddly art, which evokes something of Kevin Henkes’ later style, with a dash of Marla Frazee’s emotive prowess. A zoomed-in portrait of Bear’s pouting face against a dark background brings readers back to the time of the opening spread and reads “Bear thinks it is all no fair.” This may bring to mind really, really angry Sophie and her blazing close-up in Molly Bang’s famous title. Bear’s ensuing tantrum alone in his room might make some wonder where his mother is (it was she who led him off the playground), but she soon reappears to give him lunch and tuck him in for a much-needed nap. When Bear awakens, he’s ready to play outside, refreshed and, like angry Sophie before him, no longer mad.
Good, good book! (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4971-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
The soft cadence of the rhyming verses and the joyous pictures of the elephants will make this a bedtime favorite
When a baby elephant is born, “wrinkled and gray,” not just the herd, but the whole world rejoices, from morning to night.
From the proud Mama to the grand Aunts, from the “fertile and firm” Earth to the ancient Banyan tree, everyone and everything around the new baby elephant joins in celebration and care for the Baby “who warms the hearts of the world today.” Glowing with warm golds and greens and shadowed with deep blues and greens, the gorgeous artwork lushly illuminates the day of an elephant’s birth as it is cared for by its family and surroundings. The expressions on the elephant faces are sheer joy to behold; the elephant smiles are realistic and yet radiate affection. Seemingly simple, this gentle rhyming story works on two levels: the playfulness of the young elephant and its friends ensure that young children will be able to see themselves in the story, and given the depiction of the natural scenes, at least some young readers will become fascinated with the lives of elephants as well. An author’s note at the end provides background from the Indian-American author’s own life and also draws attention to the present-day need to protect elephants from poaching and the loss of habitat.
The soft cadence of the rhyming verses and the joyous pictures of the elephants will make this a bedtime favorite . (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-16684-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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