A lovely invitation to look up, slow down, and grow.
Mountains may seem still, but Kuo argues otherwise—and finds in that contradiction a surprisingly moving metaphor for growing up.
This second book in Kuo’s I Am Nature series, following 2022’s Luminous, operates on two tracks simultaneously. Lyrical, second-person text encourages young readers to imagine themselves as mountains—swaying, humming, growing inch by inch—while quieter expository text explains the science behind these actions (tectonic plates “shift and bump against each other” and over time “collide and push land upwards”). The balance between wonder and information is superb. Kuo’s digital illustrations deploy an energetic palette of oranges, purples, greens, and whites. The book, as well as its subject, has a timeless quality—at once geologically ancient and gently intimate. Spreads shift confidently in scale, from a child pressed against a train window gazing at Fuji-san to vast glacier fields and erupting volcanoes, yet the human figures (a brown-skinned adult and youngster, always warmly rendered) keep the emotional register close. The endpapers are themselves a quiet gift: wordless panoramic landscapes that ease readers into mountain terrain before the text begins and carry them gently out at the close. Backmatter includes a chart of 13 mountains from around the world—among them Kilimanjaro, Sagarmāthā/Qomolangma, and Lawetlat’la—with heights and a note acknowledging Indigenous and colonial naming histories and challenging readers to find all the mountains in the previous pages.
A lovely invitation to look up, slow down, and grow. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781778401060
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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