A simple, matter-of-fact reminder that we are all connected.
An introduction to LUCA, the “squishy blob” that sits at the end of the deepest root of the family tree that includes every living thing.
What with falling meteorites, erupting volcanoes, and violent weather, the Earth of over 3 billion years ago was, Krossing writes with considerable understatement, an “unfriendly world”—but it was then that our Last Universal Common Ancestor “formed from / the dust of exploded stars.” It had no legs, arms, eyes, mouth, or stomach, but because it would divide, grow, and change to develop all those and more, it connects us to all the “mushrooms and moss, / fir trees and ferns, / bacteria and bedbugs, / sea stars and sharks, / lizards and lions” on our planet. Lo gives this narrative a cozy, intimate feeling with a quick progression of broadly brushed scenes featuring figures from an amorphous glob with a few indistinct organelles inside through the appearance of low green plants and orange dinosaurs to a final view of a family of brown-skinned human campers smiling up at swirling northern lights and stars. Indeed, the author and the illustrator suggest at the end, the miracle that is us could well be repeated on another world. Readers after a fuller account of evolution might pair this with the likes of Lisa Westberg Peters’ Our Family Tree (2003), illustrated by Lauren Stringer; those wondering how scientists deduced LUCA’s existence and nature will find details in an afterword in a smaller type and a source list at the end. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A simple, matter-of-fact reminder that we are all connected. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77147-445-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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
A good overview of this complex, essential organ, with an energetic seasoning of silliness.
An introduction to the lead guitar and vocalist for the Brainiacs—the human brain.
The brain (familiar to readers of Seluk’s “The Awkward Yeti” webcomic, which spun off the adult title Heart and Brain, 2015) looks like a dodgeball with arms and legs—pinkish, sturdy, and roundish, with a pair of square-framed spectacles bestowing an air of importance and hipness. Other organs of the body—tongue, lungs, stomach, muscle, and heart—are featured as members of the brain’s rock band (the verso of the dust jacket is a poster of the band). Seluk’s breezy, conversational prose and brightly colored, boldly outlined cartoon illustrations deliver basic information. The brain’s role in keeping the heart beating and other automatic functions, directing body movements, interpreting sights and sounds, remembering smells and tastes, and regulating sleep and hunger are all explained, prose augmented by dialogue balloons and information sidebars. Seluk points out, importantly, that feelings originate in the brain: “You can control how you react…but your feelings happen no matter what.” The parodied album covers on the front endpapers (including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Green Day, Run DMC, Queen, Nirvana) will amuse parents—or at least grandparents—and the rear endpapers serve up band members’ clever social media and texting screenshots. Backmatter includes a glossary and further brain trivia but no resources or bibliography.
A good overview of this complex, essential organ, with an energetic seasoning of silliness. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-16700-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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