A warm and fuzzy look at animals living with disabilities.
Emerson profiles three animals with disabilities featured in The Dodo’s “Little but Fierce” online video series.
In two to three sentences per page, the author introduces a tiny trio. Vera, a French bulldog, “could fit into a teacup,” and her cleft palate made eating difficult; Cody, an alpaca, was too small to stand on her own; and Karamel, a squirrel, was injured in a trap, necessitating the amputation of her four legs (referred to as “arms”). Fortunately, patient humans nursed each back to relative health: “It only takes a little love to make a BIG difference!” Fans of cuddly animals will enjoy the cheery color photos as Vera mugs at the camera, Cody poses in a unicorn costume, and Karamel zooms with her wheeled prostheses. Kids with disabilities may find their furry counterparts comforting or cool. Though the text frames the plucky animals’ disabilities positively, it occasionally does so via clichés that humans with disabilities encounter all too often—though Vera is small, she “doesn’t let that stop her”; Cody “may be tiny, but her heart is BIG!” The page layout is rather busy. Against a graph-paper background, bright blue, green, pink, and yellow borders and text boxes compete with photos and text; occasional blue text against blue background is somewhat hard to read. A glossary defines terms printed in the narrative in boldface, such as “surgery” and “prosthetic.”
A warm and fuzzy look at animals living with disabilities. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-57619-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Well-meant but too often oversimplified.
A set of elephant facts designed to spark lifelong interest in protecting these curious and unique creatures.
Like its subjects, the presentation has a few wrinkles. Though otherwise rendered realistically enough to tell the different types apart, the pachyderms first visible through a shaped cutout in the front cover sport oversized googly eyes. Labels identifying some of the flora and fauna visible in Clulow’s forest and grassland scenes are usually helpful, but seeing elephants tagged “African forest elephant” and “African savanna elephants” without explanation in the wake of the author’s statement earlier that there are only two species—Asian and African—is confusing. Otherwise, along with inset suggestions for ways to find out more or to get involved in elephant conservation, Barr does offer a set of simply phrased physical and behavioral observations—the titular reasons to love an elephant—that are strong in reader appeal: “1: They have the biggest noses in the world”; “6: They cuddle and care.” The co-published 10 Reasons to Love a Turtle shares the appeal but has cracks of its own. It’s really just about the seven kinds of sea turtles (an arbitrary limitation compounded by the bizarre claim that “all turtles live in the ocean”), and it features an animal cast that is all smiles (sharks included) and odd-looking eyes.
Well-meant but too often oversimplified. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-84780-942-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
The fisherman’s wife gets, as usual, short shrift…but this is a rollicking rendition, particularly well-suited to reading...
A familiar folk tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, transplanted to the bayou.
Swamp creatures intone a rhythmic chorus—“ ‘The fish was a-splashin’ as Paul went a-crashin’ / down to the bottom of the boat.’ / Kerplunk!”—each time the fisherman rows out to beg another wish of the talking sac-a-lait (the crappie suffers, she wails, under a spell from the evil swamp queen) at the behest of his ambitious wife, Paulette. So it is that Paulette gets a new pot, then goes from a cook whose gumbo earns raves from all over to mistress of a big house in a wealthy neighborhood. But her ultimate demand to be queen of the Mardi Gras Ball leaves the couple as poor yet happy as they began. Unlike the wife in another Cajun version, Whitney Stewart’s Catfish Tale, illustrated by Gerald Guerlais (2014), Paulette never takes any action to redeem herself. But Paul comes off as kindhearted rather than henpecked; so much so, in fact, that he gets one final, unspoken wish, which he bestows on the sac-a-lait herself. And soon a magnificent new Mardi Gras queen is crowned. Both as fish and, later, queen, the sac-a-lait sports glamorous, long-lashed blue eyes and lush red lips in Leonhard’s comically hyperbolic illustrations. Paul and Paulette present as white, but along with showing a range of ruddy bronze skin tones, the whole, robust human cast includes some African-American members.
The fisherman’s wife gets, as usual, short shrift…but this is a rollicking rendition, particularly well-suited to reading aloud. (afterword, glossary) (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4556-2366-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
