A child-friendly invitation to dive in.
Striking photographs illustrate this collection of marine animals, a sampling of remarkable creatures that live in and around the ocean.
This substantial revision of the author’s Oceans: Dolphins, Sharks, Penguins and More (2010) repeats much from the earlier volume, including the introduction by Sylvia Earle, the general description of the oceans of the world and their layers of life, and some of the informative text. New material has been added; the design has been spiced up; and old text rearranged and illustrated with different, beautifully reproduced action photographs. Separate, color-tabbed sections describe coral reefs, sharks and rays, marine mammals, whales and dolphins, marine reptiles, marine birds, and “bizarre creatures.” Interspersed are spreads on “ocean extremes” of various sorts (explorers are lowered to the polar ice on “ice buckets,” for instance). The reorganization makes better sense than the original’s, and the new material includes a section on habitats and a description of the National Geographic–sponsored Pristine Seas Project. Rizzo’s information is conversationally delivered, accurate, and likely to appeal. This new version capitalizes on children’s familiarity with the Disney Pixar marine world: a blue tang (like Dory) swims across the front cover; a clownfish (like Nemo) peeks out of the title O, and several more hide among anemones on the back cover. As before, it concludes with 20 sensible ways even landlocked readers can help protect the water world.
A child-friendly invitation to dive in. (glossary, index, picture credits, acknowledgments) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2506-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Pretty but insubstantial.
Zommer surveys various bird species from around the world in this oversized (almost 14 inches tall tall) volume.
While exuberantly presented, the information is not uniformly expressed from bird to bird, which in the best cases will lead readers to seek out additional information and in the worst cases will lead to frustration. For example, on spreads that feature multiple species, the birds are not labeled. This happens again later when the author presents facts about eggs: Readers learn about camouflaged eggs, but the specific eggs are not identified, making further study extremely difficult. Other facts are misleading: A spread on “city birds” informs readers that “peregrine falcons nest on skyscrapers in New York City”—but they also nest in other large cities. In a sexist note, a peahen is identified as “unlucky” because she “has drab brown feathers” instead of flashy ones like the peacock’s. Illustrations are colorful and mostly identifiable but stylized; Zommer depicts his birds with both eyes visible at all times, even when the bird is in profile. The primary audience for the book appears to be British, as some spreads focus on European birds over their North American counterparts, such as the mute swan versus the trumpeter swan and the European robin versus the American robin. The backmatter, a seven-word glossary and an index, doesn’t provide readers with much support.
Pretty but insubstantial. (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-500-65151-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stimulating outing to the furthest reaches of our knowledge, certain to inspire deep thoughts.
From a Caldecott and Sibert honoree, an invitation to take a mind-expanding journey from the surface of our planet to the furthest reaches of the observable cosmos.
Though Chin’s assumption that we are even capable of understanding the scope of the universe is quixotic at best, he does effectively lead viewers on a journey that captures a sense of its scale. Following the model of Kees Boeke’s classic Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps (1957), he starts with four 8-year-old sky watchers of average height (and different racial presentations). They peer into a telescope and then are comically startled by the sudden arrival of an ostrich that is twice as tall…and then a giraffe that is over twice as tall as that…and going onward and upward, with ellipses at each page turn connecting the stages, past our atmosphere and solar system to the cosmic web of galactic superclusters. As he goes, precisely drawn earthly figures and features in the expansive illustrations give way to ever smaller celestial bodies and finally to glimmering swirls of distant lights against gulfs of deep black before ultimately returning to his starting place. A closing recap adds smaller images and additional details. Accompanying the spare narrative, valuable side notes supply specific lengths or distances and define their units of measure, accurately explain astronomical phenomena, and close with the provocative observation that “the observable universe is centered on us, but we are not in the center of the entire universe.”
A stimulating outing to the furthest reaches of our knowledge, certain to inspire deep thoughts. (afterword, websites, further reading) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4623-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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