Recycling at its best.
A tribute to a decommissioned warship turned to a better purpose.
The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, or “The Mighty O,” saw action in the Korean and Vietnamese wars but rather than being scrapped at the end of its career, was scuttled off the Florida coast to serve as an artificial reef. It “remains the largest ship ever reefed,” and a sense of its length and bulk comes through clearly in Wright’s atmospherically lit, realistically detailed illustrations—some of which are full wordless spreads. Along with explaining in her spare account and one of several afterwords the importance of natural reefs as habitats and how they are endangered, Stremer highlights the painstaking efforts required to clear out the hulk, rid it of toxic substances, tow it to its final location, and control its sinking so that it comes to rest in a stable position. Amazingly, divers sent to inspect it only hours later found sea life already checking it out. Though Aimée M. Bissonette’s Shipwreck Reefs (2021), illustrated by Adèle Leyris, provides glimpses of a variety of manufactured reefs and closer looks at what lives on them, here the author’s quicker closing tally of marine residents gives the tale a properly triumphant finish. The groups of human workers appearing in a few scenes are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Recycling at its best. (select sources, tips for saving the reefs, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780823452682
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched.
An amiable introduction to our thrifty, sociable, teeming insect cousins.
Bunting notes that all the ants on Earth weigh roughly the same as all the people and observes that ants (like, supposedly, us) love recycling, helping others, and taking “micronaps.” They, too, live in groups, and their “superpower” is an ability to work together to accomplish amazing things. Bunting goes on to describe different sorts of ants within the colony (“Drone. Male. Does no housework. Takes to the sky. Reproduces. Drops dead”), how they communicate using pheromones, and how they get from egg to adult. He concludes that we could learn a lot from them that would help us leave our planet in better shape than it was when we arrived. If he takes a pass on mentioning a few less positive shared traits (such as our tendency to wage war on one another), still, his comparisons do invite young readers to observe the natural world more closely and to reflect on our connections to it. In the simple illustrations, generic black ants look up at viewers with little googly eyes while scurrying about the pages gathering food, keeping nests clean, and carrying outsized burdens.
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567784
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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