An inviting glimpse into an unfamiliar world.
A pod of narwhals making its annual migration is the frame for this introduction to a most unusual sea mammal.
Anderson, who produced a BBC program on the springtime melting of Arctic ice that marked the first time narwhal migration was captured on film, draws from that experience to create this intriguing nature title. Narwhals are unique members of the whale family; males (and a few females) have a single tooth, a tusk that grows out like a 6-foot spear, hence the sobriquet the Arctic unicorn (tuskless narwhals have no teeth at all). Anderson’s story follows a pod from their deep sea winter home as they travel north to the high Arctic islands, where they will spend their summer, and back (a map in the backmatter traces the route along Canada’s Baffin Island), focusing on its leader, an older male. There’s suspense, as the open path through the ice closes up and the narwhals, which breathe air, must find another hole. Predators appear. A baby is born. Additional facts about the species appear in a smaller font on each spread. The text is set directly on striking full-bleed images, contrasting the dark depths with surprising colors in the sky and the summer light. Weaver works in charcoal, a medium particularly suited for the shadowy underwater pictures, but the blue skies and white ice of her Arctic vistas are equally appealing. An afterword touches on threats to the species from climate change. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An inviting glimpse into an unfamiliar world. (further information, index) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2512-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
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