A beautiful book that will draw readers out into nature and put their patience to the test.
Gardner’s text will tell readers about red foxes and how to find them, but Saarinen’s photos are the draw that will get them into the woods practicing their stillness and observation skills.
Brief text on each page, with the occasional paragraph of further information in a smaller font, presents readers with just the basics. Readers can look in the forest, the meadow, or the city and possibly spot a fox. Up-close photos of adorable foxes in each locale fill the pages. Similarly, children can look in the morning or afternoon, but dawn and dusk are best. Foxes don’t hibernate, so they can be spied through all four seasons. Gardner tells readers not to look in the sky, in trees, or in rivers or ponds, and don’t bother looking in the rain when foxes use other animals’ abandoned dens for shelter. She highlights foxes’ “fast feet, / amber eyes, / and…soft tail tipped in white” and describes what fox tracks look like (in contrast to two others, unidentified) and the sounds foxes make. The last hints are the most helpful for hopeful fox-spotters: “You must be as still as a pebble… / and as quiet as the moon. / You must be willing to wait…and wait.” Saarinen’s photos are phenomenal; amateur photographers will drool in envy and perhaps learn a few tips in his photographer’s note.
A beautiful book that will draw readers out into nature and put their patience to the test. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7624-7135-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Informative yet optimistic, this cri du coeur from Planet Awesome deserves wide attention.
The sixth in McAnulty’s Our Universe series focuses on Earth’s human-caused problems, offering some family-level activities for mitigation.
Vivaciously narrated by “Planet Awesome,” the text establishes facts about how Earth’s location with regard to the sun allows life to flourish, the roles of the ocean and atmosphere, and the distinctions between weather and climate. McAnulty clearly explains how people have accelerated climate change “because so many human things need energy.” Soft-pedaling, she avoids overt indictment of fossil fuels: “Sometimes energy leads to dirty water, dirty land, and dirty air.” Dire changes are afoot: “Some land is flooding. Other land is too dry—and hot. YIKES! Not good.” “And when I’m in trouble, Earthlings are in trouble, too.” Litchfield’s engaging art adds important visual information where the perky text falls short. On one spread, a factory complex spews greenhouse gases in three plumes, each identified by the chemical symbols for carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Throughout, planet Earth is appealingly represented with animated facial features and arms—one green, one blue. The palette brightens and darkens in sync with the text’s respective messages of hope and alarm. Final pages introduce alternative energy sources—wind, hydro, solar, and “human power—that’s from your own two feet.” Lastly, Earth provides excellent ideas for hyperlocal change, from buying less new stuff to planting trees. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Informative yet optimistic, this cri du coeur from Planet Awesome deserves wide attention. (author’s note, numerical facts, atmospheric facts, ideas for action, sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-78249-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
Neither fish nor fowl…
Some readers might be familiar with birds that remove troublesome insects from large animals’ hides and maybe with wrasses and other animals that remove parasites from larger fish, but most will not have been exposed to the range of species and complexity of interactions that are described in this innocent-seeming picture book.
Each double-page spread consists of an introduction and brief paragraphs and illustrations arranged across the pages, Dorling Kindersley–style. The light-colored, humorous watercolor sketches of animals in their habitats have joke headings and speech balloons, and there are some funny sketches such as a hippo that gives a ride to a turtle and a heron. But the text of some of the spreads seems far too sophisticated for the age group for which the illustrations are apparently intended. A spread on bees and plants uses higher-level vocabulary—“Diligent pollinators” reads one heading—and kids reading this would certainly need an adult on hand to explain concepts and words. The approach seems problematic; nerdy kids with a real interest in interspecies interaction may find the illustrations too low-level to be engaging, and kids who enjoy the artwork may well not be able to understand the text. It almost feels like a high school chapter on symbiosis masquerading as a children’s picture book.
Neither fish nor fowl… .(Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-912006-48-9
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Scribblers/Sterling
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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