Flock away from this one.
A hodgepodge of bird facts.
While there is a throughline to this book—the annual migration of swallows from Europe to Africa—it may take young listeners most of the book before they realize it, as it’s a subtle aspect that is buried in an avalanche of seemingly miscellaneous facts about many different species of birds. From habitats and nesting habits to prey and how birds fly, the facts come hard and fast in small paragraphs of text scattered across the pages, though there isn’t much rhyme or reason to their order—wingspan is used several pages before it is defined—and some information is repeated, even on the same page. Rzezak’s stylized birds have expressive eyebrows that unfortunately often make them look angry. The stylization can also at times make species look too similar to one another, as on the page shared by the sociable weavers and the swallows, which differ in shape only in their tails. On a page with lots of birds on a power line, the one redheaded swallow readers are told to find on every spread is among a group labeled blackbirds instead of with its fellow swallows at the other end of the line, and its body type matches the blackbirds’. Various words are bolded in the text, species names among them, but there is no glossary, and the book lacks backmatter and a map as well, serious lacks in a nonfiction text for children.
Flock away from this one. (Nonfiction. 4-8)Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780500653241
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Too limited for reference but easy on the eyes and well-suited for browsing and sharing with younger animal lovers.
A select gallery of world wildlife, grouped geographically.
The presentation is notable chiefly for the clean lines and harmonious coloring of Bordicchia’s animal figures and simplified terrain maps. The world tour offers small, naturally posed portraits of several hundred creatures scattered across oversize (and in two cases, large, accordion-folded) leaves with terse accompanying notes highlighting distinctive physical features or behaviors. The maps are largely free of political boundaries and sparsely labeled with major habitat regions. The arbitrarily chosen geographical frames range from Australia (“three million square miles of zoological excitement”) and other continents to Madagascar and the Arctic; the selected animals mix occasional unusual specimens like the raccoonlike olinguito of the Andes and a Pyrenean desman (a riverine mole) with the usual suspects. Aside from a tiny white bicyclist in one scene, humans are absent from the art—even on the “tree” (more like a graceful vine, here) of life at the beginning—but at the thematic center of closing spreads that focus on endangered species, environmental conservation, and the need for sustainable energy sources.
Too limited for reference but easy on the eyes and well-suited for browsing and sharing with younger animal lovers. (index) (Picture atlas. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-909263-11-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
Despite the elements of a favorite folk tale, storytime, and a bear, this is not a honey of a tale—it’s bearly amusing.
It’s storytime, but where is the librarian?
A diverse group of children sets out to search for Ms. Merryweather. The first clue they find is prints—not footprints but paw prints. Then they discover that the librarian’s desk is sticky with spilled honey and covered in shredded and torn books. Behind the desk is “a new librarian”—a real bear, helpfully wearing a name tag that says “librarian.” The kids are excited and ask the bear to read them a scary story. Of course, he does. Opening a book about bears, he roars, growls, stomps, and roars some more. (The key verbs are printed in all caps for extra fizz.) When Ms. Merryweather appears (she was seeing to a volcano eruption in a different section), she doesn’t notice the bear. Her pick for storytime is “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” but wait, something is missing—where’s the baby bear in the story? Guess! The pencil and digital media illustrations are simple; the kids have dots for eyes and mouths, and Ms. Merryweather, a white woman with fluffy red hair, wears stereotypical eyeglasses. The book’s premise obviously springs from the familiar mispronunciation of the word “librarian” by kids, but it doesn’t figure in the oddly disjointed story at all. The metafictive movement of the little bear in and out of the story lacks not only logic, but luster.
Despite the elements of a favorite folk tale, storytime, and a bear, this is not a honey of a tale—it’s bearly amusing. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-97365-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
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