Fans of the first book will be thrilled to encounter more fact-filled fun.
Dr. Glider travels around the world to advise her patients and instruct her readers.
The bespectacled sugar glider introduced in Eat Your Rocks, Croc! (2020) dispenses more advice, fast facts, and interesting science concepts to 15 new patients here. The doctor’s travels begin and end in Canada, but in between she dives into oceans, flies to Australia, climbs trees and even mountains, visits islands in southeast Asia, the Galápagos, nature reserves in Africa, and the seashore on Nantucket. Spread by spread, each animal is introduced with a given name and its geographical habitat before it poses a question that allows Dr. Glider to reveal a curious fact. The sloth is turning green; that’s algae that grows on its back because it moves slowly and seldom. Blue dragons (a kind of sea slug called a nudibranch) eat the tentacles of the stinging man-of-war to make themselves venomous. The text is simple and short, fitted into speech bubbles. Each spread includes additional facts and concepts in boxes along the right. Keating has a knack for finding intriguing information and the skill to impart it with humor. Oswald’s engaging illustrations feature creatures with expressive, anthropomorphic faces. Dr. Glider has been provided with wonderful accessories: a device for recording the kookaburra; earphones for hearing the infrasonic sounds of the okapi; a safari helmet for exploring the zebra’s savanna. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fans of the first book will be thrilled to encounter more fact-filled fun. (glossary, cast list) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-23989-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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