Conversational, inquisitive, and admiring poems question, explore, and honor our Earth.
An ardent, earnest collective narrative voice (identifying as the Earth’s human children) directly addresses the planet throughout this dazzling collection, explaining in the first poem that “we have been studying you, Earth, / but we long to learn more.” Each poem succinctly explores just one topic, allowing young readers to really ponder that individual, awe-inspiring subject. Readers find wonder in its volcanoes, deserts, plates, tides, jungles, oceans, weather, and mysteries, and they will enjoy frequent questions posed to Earth herself. “Earth, / do you love your dry places / as much as your watery ones? / Your tropics / as much as your ice?” Precise, naïve illustrations place the horizon line low and employ double-page spreads to capture the Earth’s great dome of sky, broad terrain, and wide waters. It’s fun to locate the little people (of all skin tones), fish, dinosaurs, monkeys, snakes, cats, and more within these large illustrations—and especially fun to squint and interpret their teeny experiences on Earth. Backmatter groups poems under larger scientific headers, with explanatory paragraphs that flesh out the concepts introduced in verse. Additional resources appear as well, with URLs of child-friendly climate change and conservation websites as well as a bibliography for those interested in further reading.
Lithe, accessible poetry celebrates our world’s mind-boggling grandeur—and humanity’s role as her steward. (Picture book/poetry. 6-12)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5528-2
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S POETRY
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This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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A charged-up roundup of astro-facts.
Having previously explored everything awesome about both dinosaurs (2019) and sharks (2020), Lowery now heads out along a well-traveled route, taking readers from the Big Bang through a planet-by-planet tour of the solar system and then through a selection of space-exploration highlights. The survey isn’t unique, but Lowery does pour on the gosh-wow by filling each hand-lettered, poster-style spread with emphatic colors and graphics. He also goes for the awesome in his selection of facts—so that readers get nothing about Newton’s laws of motion, for instance, but will come away knowing that just 65 years separate the Wright brothers’ flight and the first moon landing. They’ll also learn that space is silent but smells like burned steak (according to astronaut Chris Hadfield), that thanks to microgravity no one snores on the International Space Station, and that Buzz Aldrin was the first man on the moon…to use the bathroom. And, along with a set of forgettable space jokes (OK, one: “Why did the carnivore eat the shooting star?” “Because it was meteor”), the backmatter features drawing instructions for budding space artists and a short but choice reading list. Nods to Katherine Johnson and NASA’s other African American “computers” as well as astronomer Vera Rubin give women a solid presence in the otherwise male and largely White cast of humans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A quick flight but a blast from first to last. (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-35974-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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