A prime candidate for a destination party.
Why celebrate for just 24 hours on Earth when our nearest neighbor has a 709-hour day?
Sure, balloons won’t float and the near lack of atmosphere also means that everyone has to wear special suits—but the low gravity makes gymnastics a snap, it’s easy to catch the candy as it falls from the piñata, and a batted baseball really travels! Expanding on the fanciful bits with boxed blocks of factual commentary, Lapin accurately describes lunar conditions—explaining, for instance, why the sky is black rather than blue and noting that earthshine is 40 times brighter than moonglow—while suggesting expeditions to check out craters and maria, having a scavenger hunt to track down artifacts left by the Apollo astronauts (two golf balls, 12 pairs of space boots, a rumored “rude drawing”), and chowing down on “a Space Station favorite,” chocolate-pudding cake squeezed from a foil pouch. Ceccarelli adds jolly notes aplenty with painted scenes of young partiers (an inclusive lot, featuring one with Asian features and several people of color) zinging exuberantly around in zero gravity, cavorting or making dust angels on the lunar surface, and gathering back at their spacecraft as a pizza-delivery rocket lands nearby before they all blast off for home. The author reserves generous slices of print and web resources at the end for readers who couldn’t make the voyage.
A prime candidate for a destination party. (glossary, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2970-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A solid addition to the climate-change canon for those interested in saving a fragile world.
Dire consequences attend the unchecked melting of Arctic sea ice.
The more the ice melts, the more the Arctic climate changes. The more that air and ground temperatures rise, the more the frozen ecosystem’s inhabitants, including plants and insects, suffer from dwindling habitats; threats to food sources; and imbalances in feeding, breeding, and migration patterns. Solid information is packed into this brief work that lucidly raises the alarm for young readers, with each spread capturing the thrilling, chilling north in rich, dramatic blue swathes of seawater set off by icy glaciers and snowdrifts. Child-friendly, occasionally cluttered paintings, some with labels, highlight polar bears and their Arctic neighbors; a spread of vignettes illustrates how changes to plant life affect wildlife. One labeled spread explains all: As seawater warms, it absorbs sunlight, thus heating more water and melting more ice. One poignant spread depicts a bewildered polar bear mom, eyeing readers and flanked by her twin cubs, drifting on a shrinking ice floe. Two human children, one brown-skinned and one pale, occasionally appear in the illustrations as well. The book ends on a hopeful note, reassuring youngsters that “we still have time to save polar bears and slow the loss of Arctic ice.” A note in the backmatter offers conservation tips.
A solid addition to the climate-change canon for those interested in saving a fragile world. (author’s note, bibliography, additional sources) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-14319-8
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A refreshing dive past some of our world’s marine wonders.
Denizens of the deep crowd oversized pages in this populous gallery of ocean life.
The finny and tentacled sea creatures drifting or arrowing through Zommer’s teeming watercolor seascapes are generally recognizable, and they are livened rather than distorted by the artist’s tendency to place human eyes on the same side of many faces, Picasso-like. Headers such as “Ink-teresting” or “In for the krill” likewise add a playful tone to the pithy comments on anatomical features or behavioral quirks that accompany the figures (which include, though rarely, a white human diver). The topical spreads begin with an overview of ocean families (“Some are hairy, some have scales, some have fins and some are boneless and brainless!”), go on to introduce select animals in no particular order from sea horses and dragonets to penguins and pufferfish, then close with cautionary remarks on chemical pollution and floating plastic. The author invites readers as they go to find both answers to such questions as “Why does a crab run sideways?” and also a small sardine hidden in some, but not all, of the pictures. For the latter he provides a visual key at the end, followed by a basic glossary.
A refreshing dive past some of our world’s marine wonders. (index) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-500-65119-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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