A lushly illustrated and soothing bedtime read—but look elsewhere for animal facts.
Bedtime in the animal world.
Sixteen animal species are portrayed sleeping in appropriate habitats in this Czech import. Each spread includes a brief piece of text set directly on a full-bleed image. Designed, most probably, to be read aloud to sleepy preschoolers, the narrative emphasizes sleep-time behaviors: Polar bears are “tucked in by the white blanket,” and the “briny bed” of sea otters “rocks them till morning.” This would make a good bedtime choice for children who relish facts. But some of this information isn’t strictly true. We’re told that giraffes dream of “juicy acacias” and that cats dream of rodents and creamy milk—pure speculation, even with the technology available to today’s scientists. The author notes that hazel dormice “live in almost every forest” and that readers likely haven’t encountered them only because dormice are nocturnal—neglecting to specify that this species is native to Europe. He also states that “once a bumblebee leaves its nest, it never returns.” Bumblebees in the U.S., however, are social creatures that live in underground hives. On the whole, though, this appealing, child-directed narrative is smoothly written. The other animals covered include pelicans, parrotfish, seals, flamingos, green tree pythons, foxes, peacocks, camels, dogs, and common swifts—an interesting and unusual assortment brought to life by Štumpfová’s beautifully rendered screen prints.
A lushly illustrated and soothing bedtime read—but look elsewhere for animal facts. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781636550978
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Red Comet Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Enticing and eco-friendly.
Why and how to make a rain garden.
Having watched through their classroom window as a “rooftop-rushing, gutter-gushing” downpour sloppily flooded their streets and playground, several racially diverse young children follow their tan-skinned teacher outside to lay out a shallow drainage ditch beneath their school’s downspout, which leads to a patch of ground, where they plant flowers (“native ones with tough, thick roots,” Schaub specifies) to absorb the “mucky runoff” and, in time, draw butterflies and other wildlife. The author follows up her lilting rhyme with more detailed explanations of a rain garden’s function and construction, including a chart to help determine how deep to make the rain garden and a properly cautionary note about locating a site’s buried utility lines before starting to dig; she concludes with a set of leads to online information sources. Gómez goes more for visual appeal than realism. In her scenes, a group of smiling, round-headed, very small children in rain gear industriously lay large stones along a winding border with little apparent effort; nevertheless, her images of the little ones planting generic flowers that are tall and lush just a page turn later do make the outdoorsy project look like fun.
Enticing and eco-friendly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781324052357
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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