As flashy as a butterfly but needs a swarm of support.
The insect world is buzzing with superpowers!
Jumping on the superhero bandwagon, Messner and Nickell bring readers a fascinating and fun read that is heavy on action but light on the details. Designed like a graphic novel, the book introduces 18 insects that have extraordinary abilities. Along the way, readers learn about the biological classification system and a sampling of insect orders. Nickell’s illustrations keep the pages turning, as insects are presented as the superheroes (or supervillains) of the book: “The Decapitator” (also known as the Asian giant hornet) is surrounded by action lines and has thunderbolts of power emanating from its viselike mandibles. Other details, such as the benday dots backgrounding the yellow information boxes, create a subtle nod to comic books of old. Messner’s text flows smoothly in this action-packed format but suffers from its lack of space, and this compression may cause confusion, as when the text on the yam hawk moth vacillates between the generic and the specific. Other editorial choices are less than pleasing. The first scientific name mentioned includes a phonetic pronunciation guide, but none of the others do. The backmatter is anemic, consisting of a seven-book, two-website bibliography. Based on the format, the book will be popular, but be ready to recommend supplemental titles to readers who expect more than cursory information.
As flashy as a butterfly but needs a swarm of support. (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-3910-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pretty but insubstantial.
Zommer surveys various bird species from around the world in this oversized (almost 14 inches tall tall) volume.
While exuberantly presented, the information is not uniformly expressed from bird to bird, which in the best cases will lead readers to seek out additional information and in the worst cases will lead to frustration. For example, on spreads that feature multiple species, the birds are not labeled. This happens again later when the author presents facts about eggs: Readers learn about camouflaged eggs, but the specific eggs are not identified, making further study extremely difficult. Other facts are misleading: A spread on “city birds” informs readers that “peregrine falcons nest on skyscrapers in New York City”—but they also nest in other large cities. In a sexist note, a peahen is identified as “unlucky” because she “has drab brown feathers” instead of flashy ones like the peacock’s. Illustrations are colorful and mostly identifiable but stylized; Zommer depicts his birds with both eyes visible at all times, even when the bird is in profile. The primary audience for the book appears to be British, as some spreads focus on European birds over their North American counterparts, such as the mute swan versus the trumpeter swan and the European robin versus the American robin. The backmatter, a seven-word glossary and an index, doesn’t provide readers with much support.
Pretty but insubstantial. (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-500-65151-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stimulating outing to the furthest reaches of our knowledge, certain to inspire deep thoughts.
From a Caldecott and Sibert honoree, an invitation to take a mind-expanding journey from the surface of our planet to the furthest reaches of the observable cosmos.
Though Chin’s assumption that we are even capable of understanding the scope of the universe is quixotic at best, he does effectively lead viewers on a journey that captures a sense of its scale. Following the model of Kees Boeke’s classic Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps (1957), he starts with four 8-year-old sky watchers of average height (and different racial presentations). They peer into a telescope and then are comically startled by the sudden arrival of an ostrich that is twice as tall…and then a giraffe that is over twice as tall as that…and going onward and upward, with ellipses at each page turn connecting the stages, past our atmosphere and solar system to the cosmic web of galactic superclusters. As he goes, precisely drawn earthly figures and features in the expansive illustrations give way to ever smaller celestial bodies and finally to glimmering swirls of distant lights against gulfs of deep black before ultimately returning to his starting place. A closing recap adds smaller images and additional details. Accompanying the spare narrative, valuable side notes supply specific lengths or distances and define their units of measure, accurately explain astronomical phenomena, and close with the provocative observation that “the observable universe is centered on us, but we are not in the center of the entire universe.”
A stimulating outing to the furthest reaches of our knowledge, certain to inspire deep thoughts. (afterword, websites, further reading) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4623-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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