An idyllic portrayal of a beloved park.
Human visitors and wildlife residents both temporary and permanent experience activities and seasonal rhythms in a large urban park.
In settings modeled on New York’s Central Park, Neal depicts small figures in racially diverse groups strolling or wheeling over roadways and picnicking on broad lawns as leaves appear on trees, change color, and drop to signal passing seasons, birds and insects flit past, and pond-dwelling turtles sun themselves on rocks or rest beneath layers of ice. In simple, declarative sentences with lyrical touches that give the child’s-eye narrative a contrasting air of timelessness, Messner comments on all these activities: “Birds have returned with the warm winds of spring. Egrets and night herons glide toward the pond as a cellist plays from the shore.” The cellist is still there, playing beneath the full moon as light fades to dark in the final scene, and the two-legged visitors—riding bikes, trikes, and a wheelchair as well as on foot—flock homeward to “dream of a whole new season of wonder.” Closing notes add information about the animal cast and also recommended park websites, guides, and even poetry. It’s a fairly idealized depiction (there’s nary a rat or even pigeon to be seen), and though Messner doesn’t mention that Central Park is not a natural area but was thoroughly designed and engineered, on the whole, it’s an immersive, informative ramble.
An idyllic portrayal of a beloved park. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9781797231501
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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