Grupper welcomes readers to cold country with this appealing photographic essay on the animals and plants of the North Pole, and the animals living in the waters around the South Pole. With attention to details, he explains that the polar bear, wet from pulling a ringed seal out of the ocean, “rolls around, using the snow like a towel to dry himself off!” Glossy, full-page, full-color pictures show hundreds of bright pink walruses “hot and grouchy,” trying to get cool, glow-in-the-dark underwater zooplankton, wild flowers in bloom, a pack of hunting arctic wolves, a family of polar bears snoozing, and grizzly bears looking for lunch. Two-thirds of the book concentrates on the Arctic, with much less space devoted to Antarctica, where Grupper discusses animals that visit the South Pole. Among the pictures are those of scientists garbed for the weather setting up scientific equipment, followed by a conclusion that compares and contrasts the two poles. This attractive volume offers a real sense of the differences between regions often thought of as identical. (map) (Picture book/nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7922-7143-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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