A welcome addition to the eye-catching series that began with Wild Tracks (2008).
Continuing his exploration of the world around us, a wildlife artist takes readers to icy polar habitats far from his Vermont home.
Chapter by chapter, Arnosky introduces animals who thrive in spite of the cold: under the ice and over the snow in northern winters and in the Arctic and Antarctic. Acrylic paintings spread across the expanse of fold-out pages, adding to readers’ feelings of immersion in these unfamiliar environments. The animals are shown in groups that would be unlikely in the wild, as when a polar bear and walrus look over the edge of an ice floe as a narwhal, beluga, and harbor seal swim nearby. These make for interesting comparisons. Shaded pencil drawings illustrate simple explanations of the reasons for seasons, the inhospitable climates of polar regions, and some of the adaptations that make animal survival possible. Even more than in Tooth and Claw (2014) and similar titles, the artist based his illustrations on photographs from reference books and pictures of animals in captivity, but in an author’s note he reminds readers that some animals pictured migrate long distances and might also be seen in more temperate climes. With short descriptions filled with the kinds of details that intrigue young readers, he invites his audience to further explorations.
A welcome addition to the eye-catching series that began with Wild Tracks (2008). (suggested reading) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1025-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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